Man jailed over £200,000 Stanningley Bypass cocaine seizure

A man who was caught with three kilograms of high-purity cocaine worth more than £200,000 when he was stopped by police in Pudsey has been jailed.

Issa Muvunyi tried to ram his way out when specialist officers from West Yorkshire Police’s Proactive Intercept Team boxed in the van he was driving during a controlled stop on Stanningley Bypass, Pudsey, on November 8 last year.

Despite his attempts to escape causing damage to the lead police vehicle, the van was safely brought to a halt.

During a search of the vehicle, officers found an unsealed pink cardboard box containing three tightly wrapped packages suspected to be Class A drugs.

Those were later confirmed to be three kilograms of cocaine with a purity ranging from 89 per cent to 73 per cent across the three packages.

Following an investigation by officers from Leeds District Crime Team, Muvunyi, aged 27, from Bradford, was charged with possession with intent to supply cocaine and dangerous driving.

He admitted the offences and was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Friday.

He received six years and five months imprisonment for the drugs offence and a seven-month concurrent terms for dangerous driving.

Detective Inspector Vicky Vessey, of Leeds District Crime Team, said:

“Our investigation followed some excellent work by our roads policing colleagues, clearly demonstrating why denying criminals use of the roads is so important to tackling the organised supply of Class A drugs.

“This was a very significant seizure of high-purity cocaine that was stopped before it could reach the streets, where we know the supply of illegal drugs fuels violent crime and impacts negatively on local communities and on the lives of individual users and their families.

“We hope the significant sentence Muvunyi has received will help to reassure our communities and remind others of the serious penalties they will face if they involve themselves in this type of crime.”