April 13, 2021 2.08 pm This story is over 35 months old

Man delivered cannabis to £400k Lincoln drugs den

He avoided jail though
Stock photo of a previous cannabis grow found by Lincolnshire Police

A man who helped set up a cannabis grow at a Lincoln home where police found drugs worth over £400,000 was given a suspended jail sentence on Tuesday.

Ahmad Muslim, 35, admitted delivering cannabis growing equipment to the house on Monks Road where a modern slave was used to garden the crop over a two month period.

Lincoln Crown Court heard police later seized 533 cannabis plants with a weight of 45kg from the property.

The house was one of four properties in Lincoln where cannabis was found, along with one further house in Middlesbrough.

But Adam Pearson, prosecuting, said Muslim’s only link to the drugs conspiracy was a limited role at the Monks Road address.

Mr Pearson said Muslim’s involvement began in October 2018 when he sent a message to a friend suggesting they set up a ‘grow house’.

In February 2019 Muslim drove from London to a hydroponic store in Wakefield with another friend and collected cannabis growing equipment which they delivered to the house in Monks Road.

Mr Pearson said that grow was gardened by a modern slave and estimated to have a street value of £417,000 when it was found by police.

Further investigations showed that in 2017 Muslim sent a photo of cannabis spread across the floor of his office to a friend.

During interview Muslim claimed he was only a delivery driver and did not know anything about the Monks Road grow.

Simon Grouchy, mitigating, said Muslim was a hard working man who would lose his car business if he was jailed.

Mr Grouchy added: “He comes from a good family who are at a loss to why he became involved.”

Muslim, of Halsway, Hillingdon, London, admitted two offences of conspiring to supply cannabis and offering to supply cannabis.

He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment suspended for 18 months and must obey an electronically monitored curfew between 8pm and 6am for five months. He must also complete ten rehabilitation sessions.

Passing sentence Judge Catarina Sjolin Knight said she accepted the offer from Muslim to supply cannabis from his office was a stupid act of bravado.

The judge added: “He is clearly a hard working man who has done something incredibly stupid with a friend who was already immersed in that world.”

Meanwhile, five members of a gang that operated multi-million pound cannabis grows in Lincoln and Middlesbrough were jailed for a total of 22 years last month.

Muslim was only connected to the Monks Road address and no other properties.

One of the gang, Thuy Phan, recently had her assets confiscated after a hearing at Lincoln Crown Court.