Two drug dealers who held a Cardiff teenager captive in a London flat and forced him to package-up crack cocaine and heroin have both been jailed.
The boy was found when Metropolitan Police officers turned up at the address looking for somebody wanted for an unrelated matter.
Abdullahi Dable, 26, and Malik Touray, 20, appeared at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday when they were jailed for a total of eight years.
The victim in the case, who was 16 at the time, had been reported missing by his family on February 13 – four days before he was found.
He was made to tell his family that he was working on a building site for a week in Bristol, but they had concerns and contacted South Wales Police to report him missing.
He was actually being held in a London flat, forced to sort crack cocaine and heroin into street deals. Abdulahi Dable and Malik Touray had taxied him from Cardiff to London and threatened to harm him if he spoke to anybody else about what he was doing or tried to leave. He wasn’t even allowed to leave to buy food, which instead was delivered to him.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police were looking for somebody else when they found the Cardiff teenager on February 17.
But as they entered the flat, they found him locked in a room along with piles of heroin on a coffee table.
When the circumstances around him being in London came to light, South Wales Police launched an investigation into his exploitation.
The police investigation centred around digital forensic work and linked devices belonging to both Dable and Touray to a series of exchanges between them and the victim.
During the boy’s journey to London, Dable, under the pseudo name ‘Billy’, instructed him to download the Telegram app which would be used for future contact.
During a Facetime contact, Dable warned the teenager to follow instructions to avoid getting hurt. There was also evidence they had tried to recruit a number of other vulnerable teenagers from Cardiff.
Both men were arrested and charged with conspiring to arrange or facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation and conspiring to supply crack cocaine and heroin.
Abdullahi Dable was jailed for four years and six months, and Malik Touray was jailed for three years and six months in a young offender institution.
Officer in the Case, Detective Constable Anna Chad Nixon, said:
“The victim in this case was vulnerable and subjected to inhumane treatment by these two men.
“Both men knew they were recruiting a child into their dangerous criminal activities, showing no concern for his welfare and only thinking of themselves and their drug profits.
“In this case, the victim feared for himself and his family to the extent that he did not want to proceed with a prosecution. Despite this we were able to build a very strong case against both men and proceed with a victimless prosecution.”
