Bodged escape bid is caught on camera
A BUNGLING drug dealer tried to escape police – by swimming out to sea.
Tinotenda Muchena dived into the Solent at Clarence Esplanade, Southsea. But after splashing around the 24-year-old swam back to shore where he was arrested by waiting police.
The whole episode was caught on CCTV cameras mounted near the Blue Reef Aquarium.
PC Francis Cregan, who had been chasing Muchena, told Portsmouth Crown Court: 'He dived in, swam a short way, then turned and faced me, produced a package and put it in his mouth.
'He bit it and emptied out what I thought was a powder into the sea.
'I asked Mr Muchena to get out of the sea – I told him that I wasn't going anywhere – which he then did.'
Muchena gave a false address but police were led to a house in Boakes Place, Ashurst, New Forest. There they found heroin with a street value of 46,500 and 13,900 cash under a mattress.
Muchena, who said he was unemployed, denied anything to do with the heroin and said the cash was his wife Azra Abdul's.
But the father-of-one admitted growing the cannabis found in the attic of a house in Rugby Road, Southsea.
Officers who searched him at Portsmouth Central Police Station found 370 in his jacket, notes on growing cannabis and what was described as 'a drug dealer's shopping list' in his underwear.
They also recovered 3.39g of the same batch of heroin next to the silver Vauxhall Astra Muchena was travelling in shortly before being arrested by police at Clarence Pier on February 12.
Muchena's web of lies collapsed when text messages of drug deals on his mobile phone were read in court.
He was convicted of two counts of possessing criminal property, obstructing a police officer and two counts of possessing a class A drug with intent to supply.
He was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.
Recorder James Waddington said: 'Heroin addiction is an appalling problem for society which you have helped to proliferate.'
POLICE believe Tinotenda Muchena was one of the main heroin dealers in Portsmouth.
The city's Crown Court was told how the 24-year-old had tried to cover his tracks by leading a double life.
In Southampton he lived as a married man with wife Azra Abdul, a student at Solent University, and their child.
However he used the property in Boakes Place, Ashurst, as a warehouse to store large quantities of the Class A drug heroin and thousands of pounds.
Just 29 miles away Muchena had a girlfriend – who is pregnant – and pushed Class A drugs on the streets of Portsmouth.
The former University of Portsmouth student had rented a house in Rugby Road, Southsea, in December 2007, under the pretence that he was looking for a home for his family.
Muchena was in fact planning to transform part of it into a factory to cultivate the Class C drug cannabis.
Recorder James Waddington said: 'It's clear to me from the amount of heroin recovered, the high level of purity of it and the text messages recovered from your phone showing your drug dealing activities and the money in your possession that you were engaged as a full-time, professional drug dealer.'
Detective Constable Marcus Mills said: 'Muchena has lied right from the outset and tried to get away with it. Every time he has been backed into a corner the evidence has proved he is a liar.
'This should send a clear message to any drug dealer in Portsmouth that this activity will not be tolerated.'
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Weather for Portsmouth
Thursday 24 May 2012
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