Firearms supplier given extra jailtime for Brighton drug deals

A convicted firearms supplier is facing more time behind bars after phone evidence gathered following his arrest showed that he had also peddled drugs.

Albanian national Klejdi Kazani, 24, was jailed for seven years in May 2022 after he was caught with a self-loading pistol and ammunition while he drove on the M1 in Hertfordshire in August 2021.

Kazani and his crime group – which was made up of fellow Albanians and a Bulgarian – were investigated by the officers from London’s Organised Crime Partnership – a joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service unit.

Kazani admitted firearms charges and was jailed while forensic examination of his mobile devices continued.

Messages from the phone showed he supplied almost 14 kilos of cocaine worth more than £1m, and quantities of cannabis to various associates during the weeks before his arrest.

The phone evidence led to Kazani admitting drugs and money laundering offences in October.

Today, at Southwark Crown Court, he was sentenced to a further five years to run consecutively.

All Kazani’s accomplices have also been convicted of drugs offences.

Bulgarian national Emil Spasov, 33, from Kingston-upon-Thames, was driving the car at the time of Kazani’s arrest. Spasov transported 6.1 kilos of cocaine across nine trips, including to addresses in Brighton, London and Oxford.

He also handled £148,000 in cash, which were profits of the drug dealing. He was jailed for five years and four months.

Olklen Perzhilla, 23, from Edmonton, Ervis Axhami, 37, from Hertfordshire, and Mariklen Bello, 32, from Greenwich, also delivered cocaine on multiple occasions to addresses in Brighton and London. They were jailed for four years, three years and eight months, and six years respectively.

OCP officers arrested Spasov, Axhami and Perzhilla at their home addresses on 13 December 2022, and Bello at a south east London police station a few days later after he handed himself in. All were charged with drugs offences and transferring criminal property.

Officers searching Axhami’s home found £20,000 in cash which had been wedged between the fridge and a chest of kitchen drawers, and a small amount of herbal cannabis on a shelf.

Detective Chief Inspector Ben Mahoney, from the Organised Crime Partnership, said: “Klejdi Kazani had links to drug dealers in many places, and employed members of this organised crime group to spread cocaine across London and the south east.

“As well as posing significant risks to users, these drugs would have undoubtedly fuelled violence, intimidation and other offences in these communities.

“Kazani’s conviction also shows that those supplying class A drugs very often have access to firearms and ammunition, which organised crime groups use to enforce their offending.

“The NCA and Met Police’s strong partnership is at the forefront of dismantling crime groups involved in the drugs trade. We will continue to do everything possible to protect the public from these threats.”