Drug dealers 'stick out like a sore thumb'

Stephen Ochola was jailed for four-and-a-half years on Friday after officers swooped on his hire car in the town, as reported in Saturday’s Oxford Mail.

Yesterday Pc Gavin Chan spoke about the capture of Ochola and warned other dealers that the town was not a soft touch and that it was easy to spot the dealers at work.

He added that the police team, operating in an unmarked car, arrested a man of 29 earlier the same day Ochola was jailed, seizing 19 bags of cannabis and £4,000 in cash.

Ochola, of Awgar Stone Road, Headington, was pulled over driving a hired Vauxhall Astra in Thames View on February 10 last year and found with a block of cocaine, seven street deals and a small amount of cannabis.

He denied possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply but the 26-year-old, who has a previous drug-dealing conviction, was found guilty by jurors within 10 minutes of deliberations at Oxford Crown Court last week.

Pc Chan said: “A lot of good street dealers, or runners as we call them, hire out a car to make it harder for them to get stopped.

“We saw this hire car with two black males – a driver and a passenger in the backseat – and pulled it over. There was an instant smell of cannabis and we arrested them and searched the car.”

Along with the £300 worth of drugs, disqualified driver Ochola, who had no insurance, was found with four counterfeit £20 notes.

Pc Chan said: “He only came to Abingdon for one thing, purely to deal drugs.

“Oxford officers know him very well. He’s been dealing since he was 12 or 13 years old, running crack cocaine.”

He added: “It’s a fantastic result. When dealers come to our area they stick out like a sore thumb.

“What we want to say is if you are going to come to Abingdon to do deals you will go to prison.”

On the morning of Ochola’s sentencing, Pc Chan’s colleagues arrested a suspected cannabis dealer in Springfield Drive in the town.

The 29-year-old was arrested and released on bail until March 22.