Knife crime team stop leads to drug dealer being locked up

A drug dealer has been locked up and harmful drugs were taken off the streets thanks to tenacious work by Nottinghamshire Police’s knife crime team.

Officers were patrolling the Radford area when they spotted and stopped a man suspected of being involved in drug-related activity.

He was found to be in possession of cash, a burner phone, an iPhone, and a set of gloves.

Officers heard a mobile phone ringing while carrying out a search of the area near to where they stopped him.

It led to them finding a bag containing a large amount of cannabis behind a fenced area of a car park.

The man was arrested and further inquiries led to officers searching his address In Ashwell Gardens, Hyson Green.

There they seized around 110 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine, a large amount of cannabis, burner phones, cash, and scales when they searched the suspect’s bedroom following the stop on 21 July 2022.

Amahni Maitland, aged 21, was subsequently charged with two counts of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs - namely crack cocaine and heroin – and a further count of possession with intent to supply a Class B drug – cannabis.

Maitland appeared at Nottingham Crown Court for sentencing on Friday (24 May 2024).

He was jailed for two-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to all three charges.

Sergeant Matt Daley, of Nottinghamshire Police’s knife crime team, said: “While out on our proactive patrols we look out for faces we know and look for behavioural indicators. Things like people who might be acting strangely or hanging around with individuals who are of interest to us.

“A lot of the people we come across in our day-to-day work are involved in serious or organised crime, such as drug dealing, which often goes hand-in-hand with knife crime.

“We are passionate about what we do and take a lot of pride in keeping Nottinghamshire safe and taking drugs and knives out of circulation.”