£6,000-a-week A-level tutor ran Shadwell Internet drugs den
An A-level tutor set up an internet café in London’s East End as a front for round-the-clock cannabis deals while raking in £6,000 a week teaching students.
Nearly 300 people visited Atta Ullah’s ‘drugs den’ in just four days.
Ullah, 47, ran the cannabis den in Shadwell with Jamal Akhamrich, 47, while his ‘lieutenant’, Adi El-Hafi, 38, helped offload the stash.
A hoard of cannabis resin cut into individual blocks and bags of skunk were discovered when police raided the premises in Batty Street in July, 2011.
A block of hash was found hidden behind a stack of DVDs, while a tub of weed split into bags was discovered inside a fridge.
The gang continued trading even after the raid—stopping only when police stormed the address a second time three months later.
“Ullah leased the premises purporting to be a DVD and internet business,” prosecutor Martyn Levett told Snaresbrook Crown Court today (Mon).
Most Read
- 1 East London boroughs lag behind rest of country for Covid booster uptake
- 2 Ranjith Kankanamalage death: Man charged with murder
- 3 Jailed: Man who robbed and blackmailed men he met on Grindr
- 4 Councillor says he 'hopes to lose' next election
- 5 Travel disruptions: Hackney, Islington, Tower Hamlets, Newham
- 6 Gun found in car as Met makes 130 arrests during drugs op
- 7 Jailed: Rapist who repeatedly attacked woman in her own home
- 8 Lib Dem candidate for Tower Hamlets mayor announced
- 9 Olympian burglary: Men with links to Plaistow and Isle of Dogs wanted
- 10 Coroner concerned with Barts NHS trust after woman 'unlawfully killed'
“But he went into an alternative business (supplying drugs) despite already having a successful trade teaching A-Level students—he set up a tuition centre in New Cross and taught maths, English and science with a turnover of £6,000 a week.”
CCTV evidence showed 271 people in four days pressed the buzzer to go upstairs.
“They’re not buying a DVD, nor using the internet,” the prosecutor added.
“This was a ‘dealing den’, a shop being used as a ‘front’ to sell cannabis.”
Akhamrich, from Lindley Street, Stepney, admitted conspiracy to supply a class B controlled drug.
Attah Ullah, from Thackeray Road. East Ham, admitted the same charge and permitting premises to be used for drug supplying.
El-Hafi, from East India Dock Road, Poplar, was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to supply drugs.
All three are being sentenced on March 4.
