Jailed Sheffield cocaine kingpin planned to 'pop bottles in Dubai' and boasted about being 'top of food chain'

“These offences were motivated by nothing more than sheer greed,” a judge told a Sheffield cocaine kingpin, as she jailed him for over 17 years for the distribution of hundreds of thousands of pounds of Class A drugs to users across South Yorkshire. 

In encrypted messages sent by defendant Callum Zide to supply associates, he boasted about ‘popping bottles in Dubai’ and being ‘top of the food chain’, Sheffield Crown Court heard. 

“You bragged about how much money you were making, and what you intended to do with it,” Judge Wright told Zide, aged 34. 

This was in response to mitigation from Zide’s barrister, Richard Adams, who claimed Zide, of Abbey Lane, Beauchief, Sheffield, was not your ‘typical drug dealer’, that he was neither ‘brash nor flash’ and ‘had grown up in areas of the city where many of us would not choose to raise our children’.

Judge Wright also suggested that given Zide’s experience of such areas, where drug dealing, and use, is so prevalent, he should have a heightened sense of the ‘untold harm’ drugs cause, both to users and the wider society, specifically those affected by ‘drug-related crime’.  

“Class A drugs wreck lives, those who deal in this evil trade must go to prison for a very long period,” Judge Wright said, adding: “You were motivated by nothing more than sheer greed.”

During a hearing held on September 1, 2023, the court heard how Zide’s commercial drugs operation ran between the end of November 2019 and his arrest in July 2021. 

The scale of Zide’s operation was such that he often bought quantities of cocaine with values of up to £185,000, and would make ‘such purchases every few days,’ Judge Wright said, while summarising the facts of the case. 

“This dealing was on the most serious and commercial scale,” Judge Wright told the court, adding: “It’s impossible to put a total on quantity or value…but it no doubt runs into hundreds of thousands of pounds of Class A drugs, if not more.”

The court heard how the father-of-two, who dealt primarily in cocaine and crack cocaine, but also sold heroin, used a ‘sophisticated and expensive’ encrypted 'encro chat' service to arrange the supply of drugs, dealing with suppliers using handles such as ‘el blanco’, ‘broadstem’ and ‘PEscobar,’ referring to the infamous Colombian drug lord. 

Zide also procured drugs from suppliers in Amsterdam, and was such a trusted customer among the suppliers he dealt with that he was allowed to buy hundreds of thousands of pounds of Class A drugs on ‘credit’. 

Prosecuting barrister, Katy Rafter, said the encro-chat service used by Zide and his associates was compromised in June 2020, following a targeted operation by French and Dutch authorities who sent the encrypted data they had retrieved to police forces all across the world, including South Yorkshire Police. 

The service being compromised did not ‘deter’ Zide from continuing in his large-scale drugs operation, Judge Wright said, and, consequently, South Yorkshire Police embarked on a surveillance operation of Zide and his associates beginning in February 2021.

“It showed you used several associates to distribute both cocaine and heroin,” Judge Wright told Zide, adding that it was clear from the messages retrieved from his devices, that he was not answering to anyone above him in the chain.

Among the ‘associates’ and drug-runners used by Zide was his co-defendant, Rahim Ahmed, of Clay Pit Way, Greenland, Sheffield, who, when arrested in May 2021, was found to be in possession of £50,000 in cash, and a quantity of cocaine worth up to £2,000.  

Ms Rafter told the court that multiple deposits, totalling £86,000, were paid into Rahim’s back account by several individuals over the course of a two-year period, despite the 30-year-old’s annual earning potential being determined to be in the region of ‘£16,900 at times’.

After being arrested, the court heard how Ahmed submitted a basis of plea stating that his dealings with Zide were merely ‘social’ and that his drug dealing only extended to those close to him. 

Following a trial of issue, this account was rejected by Judge Wright, however, who said she had ‘no hesitation whatsoever in finding’ Ahmed had a ‘substantial leading role’ in the operation. 

Zide was arrested on July 28, 2021, after police executed a search warrant at his home address, and officers found a list of names including Ahmed’s, along with numbers, on bank statements. Zide also was also found to be in possession of drugs, cash and a lock knife, during searches conducted at multiple addresses, and a vehicle, associated with him. 

Zide pleaded guilty to multiple charges at an earlier hearing, including: two counts of conspiracy to supply a controlled drug of class A; two counts of conspiracy to transfer criminal property; four counts of conspiracy to supply a controlled drug of class A; one count of possessing a controlled drug of class A with intent; two counts of possession with intent to supply a controlled drug of class A and one count of possessing a knife blade/sharp point article in a public place. 

The court was told he has previously served a four-year prison sentence for charges of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.

Ahmed pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to charges of conspiracy to supply a controlled drug of class A, possessing a controlled drug of class A with intent and possessing criminal property.

Another point of mitigation advanced by Mr Adams on Zide’s behalf was that he became involved with the supply of drugs after his ‘dreams’ of becoming a footballer never came to fruition; and that he was now hoping to ‘make the most’ of his time behind bars and during his stint on remand had taken up the role of football coach. 

Summarising Ahmed’s mitigation, Judge Wright said she noted his mother was terminally ill, and that he had no previous convictions recorded against him. 

“You led a law-abiding, industrious life, and showed great promise. You came from a stable home, gained an education, and somewhat ironically, studied law,” Judge Wright told Ahmed. 

She sentenced Zide to 17 years, six months in prison, while Ahmed received a 40-month custodial sentence. 

Proceeds of crime proceedings relating to Zide and Ahmed’s offending are now due to get underway in the coming months.