Drug dealer caught 'red-handed' by police jailed for three years

A Windsor man found with 'rolls of cash' in his Mercedes and dozens of MDMA tablets in his underwear has been imprisoned for three years.

Ramin Ibrahim, 33, of Stirling Close, Windsor, was stopped by police in his car in December 2022 over suspicions that the vehicle had been used for crime.

When they stopped him and searched it, police found £15,200 in two rolls of ‘neatly ordered’ cash inside.

Police took Ibrahim to the station and searched him further, whereby they also found 38 MDMA tablets – a class A drug similar to ecstasy – stashed in his underwear.

He was arrested, charged and faced trial for possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and possession of criminal property. He was tried in 2024.

At a sentencing hearing on Tuesday, the court heard that the Crown's case had been that, as a taxi driver, Ibrahim 'did not have the income to justify that amount of money' in his car.

The Crown argued that the money went 'hand in hand with drug dealing' – and added that such an amount was also 'unlikely' to have been the result of a day's street dealing.

At the sentencing, they said it ‘seems unusual’ for someone to have ‘such a high amount of neatly ordered cash’ on one’s person simply from this.

As such, it was the prosecution's contention that Ibrahim was involved in money laundering – which can mean simply handling criminal money.

Presiding, Judge Amjad Nawaz reminded the court that there had been no indication that the money had been collected within one day.

There was a ‘lack of evidence either way’ as to whether Ibrahim had been involved in a wider drug-dealing operation, the court heard.

It is ‘not exactly clear’ what he was doing with the MDMA, but the conclusion was that this was Ibrahim’s operation and no one else was involved.

Despite uncertainty over the money, it was determined that the quantity of drugs, while on the lower end of the scale, did demonstrate possession with intent to supply.

The court heard that Ibrahim had no previous convictions except some juvenile ones, which worked in his favour.

When handing down his sentence, Judge Nawaz said: “Those dealing drugs should understand the court takes a serious view [of this] and that there’s only one sentence that follows. That sentence is one of custody.”

As such, the judge gave Ibrahim three years in prison for possession with intent to supply MDMA.

He also received six months for possession of criminal property, to be served concurrently.