Two men have been jailed after police found hundreds of wraps of heroin and £10,000 in a child’s pram after raiding a Peterborough property. The stash was found at the home of Serkan Mengene after armed police officers stopped him and fellow drug dealer Ryan Gerald as they made their way back to the city in a taxi on the afternoon of 9 January 2019.
Mengene, 27, of Southfields Drive, Peterborough, first came to the attention of police when officers analysed his phone data while investigating a possible firearms offence. Data revealed his phone’s location between 3 and 9 January 2019 to be the Orton area of Peterborough where it received numerous calls – together with another phone.
Mengene then left the county for London but was arrested on outstanding matters when he tried to leave the country on 5 January. Despite this, the mobile linked to him stayed in the Orton area of Peterborough and the other phone moved around Peterborough and Spalding.
On 7 January, when Mengene was released on bail, cell site analysis revealed the phones to be together again. Officers believed Mengene, who has previous convictions for drug offences, to be accompanying others to various locations across Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire in order to deal drugs.
Cell site analysis on 8 January traced the two numbers to Southfields Drive – the home of Mengene – before moving together to Wisbech, Kings Lynn, Lincoln and then back to Peterborough. The next day, at about 11.45am, officers spotted Mengene and Gerald leave the former’s home in Southfields Drive. The pair met up with a third man and entered the Co-op, in Lawson Avenue, before calling a taxi driver and asking him for a favour. The taxi driver picked up the three men and drove them to Spalding, stopping so they could visit various locations in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire on the journey. The third man was then dropped off.
However, the taxi was stopped on the A47 during its return journey by armed police after concerns the men could have a firearm. Mengene, Gerald and the taxi driver were all arrested, the latter being later released without charge. The warrant was carried out the same day at Mengene’s address, where officers discovered 700 to 800 wraps of heroin and the cocaine hidden in a pram. The cash was found in a bedroom draw.
After being interviewed by Cambridgeshire Police, Mengene admitted two counts of conspiring to supply class A drugs. Gerald admitted two counts of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs. Both men were sentenced at Peterborough Crown Court on 21 June 2019. Mengene received a three-year sentence, while Gerald was sentenced to five years and 219 days in prison.
DC Mat Belfitt, who investigated, said: “Cell site analysis enabled us to link both defendants to these drugs offences and this sentence serves as a warning to those who think they’re above the law or can’t be traced. We’re working hard to combat drug dealing and bring people before the courts who take advantage of those trapped in addiction.”
For more information, visit Cambridgeshire Police’s website.
Image: Cambridgeshire Police
