Jailed drug dealer suspected of staging road collision to evade justice

A drug dealer suspected of staging a road traffic collision during a last minute attempt to evade justice has now been jailed for almost 15 years.

Shazad Ahmad Shabir occupied a leading role in a multimillion-pound supply chain across Cambridgeshire but crashed his car just minutes before the start of his court trial.

Shabir, 38, was initially arrested in November 2021 as part of an investigation by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU). 

Detectives linked him to a handle used on EncroChat, an encrypted messaging service operated to secretly communicate with other criminals, and which had been cracked the previous year by international law enforcement agencies.

Decoded EncroChat messages showed Shabir was part of a larger organised criminal gang involved in both the purchase and supply of heroin and cocaine, as well as the movement and collection of hundreds of thousands of pounds in criminal cash. 

Collision before first hearing

After being charged, a lengthy court process eventually led to a trial date in September 2025 at Cambridge Crown Court.

On the morning when the trial was meant to start Shabir was involved in a collision and relayed to hospital by ambulance.

Enquiries revealed the incident happened just minutes after the proposed start of the hearing, and his vehicle had been traveling in the opposite direction to the court.

Despite Shabir’s complaints of serious injury, he wandered around the hospital without any medical issues.

A warrant was issued by the court for his arrest and he was detained again and remanded in custody.

Shabir, of Fulbridge Road, Peterborough later pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply 11kg of cocaine and four kilos of heroin with an estimated street value of around £2.2million.

He also admitted three counts of money laundering. On Friday (30 January 2026) Shabir was sentenced to 14 years and four months’ imprisonment.

Proceeds of crime investigation

ERSOU Detective Chief Inspector Rob Turner said:

“Shabir played a leading role in a criminal network responsible for funnelling wholesale quantities of cocaine and heroin into our communities and laundering the profits. "We don’t know for certain the true extent of this operation and the amount of drugs Shabir was involved in supplying is likely to have even greater than what he was convicted for. “We welcome this sentence though, which reflects the scale of Shabir’s offending, as well as the determination of our officers to follow the evidence, often through complex encrypted platforms, to bring organised criminals to justice. "Our financial investigators will now be using the Proceeds of Crime Act to seek to recover cash and any other assets acquired, as a result of this criminal activity.”