(Left to right) Lutfi Muja (aged 28), Urim Bardhoshi (20) and Egzon Qarri (21) Image: NCA

Three men who ran a wholesale drug distribution network from a flat in Inks Green east London are beginning prison sentences totaling 20 years.

Albanian nationals Lutfi Muja, Urim Bardhoshi, and Egzon Qarri were all arrested on 19th July last year following a surveillance operation carried out by the National Crime Agency.

Officers saw Muja get into a taxi outside his house in Myddleton Road, Bowes Park, and tailed him as he was taken round the North Circular to Highams Park where he met Bardhoshi.

Unaware they were being watched, the pair exchanged bags and shortly afterwards officers pulled over the taxi.

Muja was arrested and a kilo of cocaine, which was destined for dealers in Birmingham, was recovered.

Bardhoshi was also arrested after trying to run away from officers.

During a search of Bardoshi’s flat in Rolls Court, Inks Green, which was a base for the cutting and distribution of drugs, his cousin Egzon Qarri was arrested.

Officers seized scales, other drug dealing paraphernalia, mobile phones, two fake Italian identity cards, 50,000 Euros and a further two tape-wrapped packages each containing around a kilo of cocaine.

They also discovered dealer lists detailing £400,000-worth of drug transactions.

All three men pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A drugs, with Bardhoshi also admitting money laundering and possessing a false ID.

On Tuesday 14th April a judge at Reading Crown Court sentenced Bardoshi to nine years, Muja six years and Qarri to five years in prison.

They face deportation after serving the sentences.

NCA Operations Manager Gary Matthews said:

These men were involved in the wholesale supply of drugs to dealers in London and beyond, and their enterprise was brought to an end as a result of a painstaking surveillance operation. The strength of evidence gathered led to them entering guilty pleas.

Organised criminal networks involved in drug dealing should know that we don’t get tired of pursuing them, disrupting their activities and stopping them causing damage to communities.