A former Costa barista discovered to his cost that drug dealing was not ‘easy’ money.

Oxford Crown Court heard that on November 23 police went through the door of the Slough bedsit Kabir Rao, 20, shared with his mum in a dawn raid.

It followed intelligence that the ground floor flat in Churchfield Mews was linked to the supply of drugs.

During the search, officers found an iPhone and three Nokia phones – all containing messages sent on behalf of the ‘Rocky’ drugs line.

The messages included advertising style texts, telling customers that the Rocky line was ‘live’, selling ‘three for £25’ and promising ‘drop offs’. One of the messages, sent to more than 150 phone numbers, promised the dealers were ‘live til late’.

Rao remained tight-lipped when he was interviewed by detectives following his arrest.

Interviewed by the probation service, however, he admitted arranging drug sales but claimed to have had no direct contact with the crack cocaine or heroin he was advertising. He thought it was ‘easy’ money.

Rao, of Wexham Road, Slough, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to two counts of offering to supply a class A drug. He had no previous convictions.

In mitigation, Rao was said to have come to the UK aged 13 with his mother and father. His father, who struggled with alcoholism, had left his wife and son to ‘fend for themselves’ – and the defendant’s mother took on two jobs to support her son.

The defendant worked two jobs himself; in McDonald’s and as a barista in Costa. The latter was in Oxford but he lost it as he could not afford to live in the city and struggled to commute from his mother’s home in Slough.

His father and step-father died at a similar time, leaving him at a low ebb, and he began hanging around with the ‘wrong crowd’ and smoking cannabis.

Rao was offered money in order to hold a number of telephones for the dealers higher up the chain. The sim cards would change on a ‘weekly basis’ and he was tasked with sending messages to would-be customers.

Jailing him for two years and four months, Judge Maria Lamb said: “You have to be dealt with for two offences of offering to supply crack cocaine and heroin, class A drugs, over what turned out to be about a four month period.

“You know as well as anybody that drugs are a scourge on this society. You may not have dealt with them face-to-face and I do not deal with you on the basis you did, but you were actually involved in the dealing of class A drugs.”

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward