DRUG dealers who travelled to Worcester from London ‘like commuters’ to peddle heroin and crack cocaine and left cash strewn ‘all over’ a city hotel room are now behind bars.

London dealers Matewos Tesfamichael and Mojtaba Yousif had a hotel room in Worcester to use as a base so they could sell class A drugs as part of a County Lines dealing operation.

However, their ‘commute’ ended in a prison cell as a Worcester judge warned that similar deterrent jail sentences would be handed out to those who followed in their footsteps. Judge Jim Tindal jailed them via prison videolinks at Worcester Crown Court on Friday.

Tesfamichael, aged 25, of Jeymer Avenue, London and Yousif, aged 19, of Hardinge Road, London, both admitted possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply and possession of criminal cash.

Both men were arrested in January though mobile phone evidence shows they were in the city in November and December of last year selling class A drugs.

Michael Conry, prosecuting, said: “Initially, at the beginning of December, information was received that they were dealing near the fountains by the river (South Quay).”

Police learned that they had checked into the Premier Inn in the city on January 3 and were planning to check out on January 5. Police arrived at the hotel on January 4 shortly before 9am and seized £6,500 in cash. They also found 14 wraps of crack cocaine and five of heroin divided into £10 deals and two sets of scales used to weigh the drugs.

Some of the cash (£3,900) was found hidden inside a black beanie hat.

Mr Conry said: “The cash was all over the place.”

When arrested both men gave ‘no comment’ interviews but the evidence suggested the cash had all been accumulated between December 28 and the date of their arrest.

James Wing, for Tesfamichael , said his client received ‘a salary’ and was managed by people further up the chain. He has ‘no connection’ to Worcester.

But judge Tindal said their lack of connection could be taken as an aggravating feature of the case. He said: “They have effectively commuted to be drug dealers.

“These are young men, employed as drug dealers, and have travelled across the country to do that and have done so over a significant period of time and have collected a significant amount of cash even if they have no right to it.”

The judge also said: “Don’t I, as a Worcester judge, have to build in a deterrent to people who travel here to deal?”

Mr Wing said his client did not have the initiative to control the enterprise and added: “He’s very much an underling in that sense.”

Mr Wing said Tesfamichael ‘got into the wrong crowd’ after serving a long sentence for robbery and had pleaded guilty at an early stage. He also mentioned that his client was a drug user himself and although he was not forced to deal the drugs had acted out of ‘naivety’.

Tim Starkey, for Yousif, said his client, a former barber, was only 18 at the time of the offences and had pleaded guilty. Yousif became a father for the first time last October. Yousif did not tell his family about the offences.

Mr Starkey said: “He describes his father as a traditional Muslim father and he was afraid of his reaction to that.

“He was working for a wage. Most of the money was not for him.”

Judge Tindal said: “Neither one of you is a criminal mastermind.”

However, he said they had both been dealing drugs as a way to make ‘quick and easy money’ and said part of his job was to deter others.

The judge jailed Tesfamichael for 40 months and Yousif for 30 months.

“Make sure, when you come out, you don’t so anything so stupid again,” he said.