Fake car hire cards masked Cardiff drug dealing operation

Two Cardiff men who ran a sophisticated drug supply operation have been jailed after police discovered their cover story didn’t quite add up.

Officers raided a flat in the Welsh capital as part of Operation Starburst, an investigation led by the Tarian regional organised crime unit into large-scale cannabis shipments from America. When they entered the property in August 2023, they found Ahmed Al-Farraji and Jamal Malik inside – but Al-Farraji initially gave police a fake name.

The raid came after four kilos of American cannabis were intercepted at the UK border, hidden in parcels addressed to Cardiff addresses with false names and misleading descriptions of what was inside.

During the search, officers seized hand-written business cards advertising a phone number. Al-Farraji told them it was for his car hire business – but investigators quickly discovered it was actually the contact for an established drug supply line known as the “Josh” line.

Police found phones that had been used to send mass text messages to numerous potential customers across Cardiff and beyond, offering cocaine and cannabis for sale. Both men refused to answer questions during police interviews.

The court heard that the mastermind behind the international shipments – 29-year-old Abdu Huriara Husain, who went by “Skinny” – had already been sentenced to six years as part of a wider organised crime group prosecution.

Al-Farraji’s barrister told Swansea Crown Court his client was managing the drugs line for others rather than running the operation himself, adding that he came from a close family and intended to make a “clean break” from crime after his release.

Malik’s defence said he had been an impressionable young student studying in Cardiff away from his family when he became involved. Despite his private education and attendance at a Russell Group university, he had succumbed to temptation – though he now worked in banking and was turning his life around.

Ahmed Abbas Al-Farraji, 25, from Topaz Street in Adamsdown, received 40 months in prison for being concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis.

Jamal Malik, 24, from Bute Crescent in Butetown, was sentenced to three years for conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis and conspiracy to import cannabis.

Detective Constable Rhys Richards of Tarian said: “This investigation uncovered a highly organised operation importing drugs into the UK and supplying both class B and class A substances onto the streets of south Wales. Offences of this nature are driven by profit and cause real harm to our communities. By working closely with partners, including Border Force, we were able to identify those responsible, disrupt a significant supply chain, and bring the offenders before the courts.”