Bungling cocaine dealers found with £100k cash stashed inside Lidl plastic bag

10 January 2024 , 15:38

651     0

£100,000 was stashed inside a Lidl carrier bag (Image: NCA)

Two cocaine dealers were jailed after £100,000 in cash was found stashed inside a Lidl carrier bag.

Birmingham criminal Olsian Vogli and Orest Malushi, from Barnet, north London, were caged for almost eight years. The pair were arrested beside Malushi's car in London last July while 'under surveillance' from the Organised Crime Partnership – a joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service unit.

Albanians Vogli, 31, from Oscott Road and 44-year-old Malushi were rumbled as the probe uncovered three mobile phones and two-and-a-half kilos of cocaine hidden in a car's secret compartment, reports BirminghamLive. The NCA shared photos of huge cash bundles inside a carrier bag, along with the specially-made glove box, as it vowed to crackdown on the class A drug trade that "fuels gang violence and suffering in the UK."

Olsian Vogli (NCA)

Orest Malushi (NCA)

Vogli had been seen entering and leaving a flat he used as a stash house shortly before the arrest. OCP officers searched a black rucksack he was carrying, which contained half-a-kilo of cocaine. They also found three phones and another two-and-a-half kilos of cocaine which had been hidden inside the specially adapted glovebox of Malushi's car.

More than £100,000 in cash and a mobile phone with several SIM cards were found after the apartment was searched. Malushi and Vogli pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply during previous hearings at St Albans Crown Court. They were sentenced to two years and six months and five years and four months respectively at Harrow Crown Court on Tuesday, January 9.

Man in 30s dies after being stabbed in park sparking police probe

Money was also stuffed in a specially-made glove box (NCA)

“The cocaine supplied by Vogli and Malushi was clearly generating large profits for the organised crime group they belonged to, as shown by the amount of cash we found in the apartment," said Andrew Tickner, of the Organised Crime Partnership. "The hide in Malushi’s car was ultimately a futile attempt to conceal his criminality, but shows the time and attention that drug suppliers will put into their criminal profession.

“The class A drugs trade fuels gang violence and suffering in the UK, which is why the NCA and Met Police’s strong partnership is at the forefront of dismantling the organised criminal groups behind it.”

Stephanie Balloo