Ipswich drug dealer Ibrahim Bah sentenced after police raid

Ibrahim Bah, 22, whose address is yet to be confirmed, was before Ipswich Crown Court for sentencing on Tuesday having pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine and heroin.

On January 21, 2022, Bah was caught by officers who came into a flat in the tower block and saw him by a window in a bedroom area.

Outside the window were 28 wraps of heroin and 20 wraps of cocaine with Bah’s DNA on them.

The court heard mitigation from a probation officer, who cannot be named, who said Bah has not committed any further offences.

She said Bah had told her that at aged 17 he had been kicked out of his family home while trying to protect his mother from his stepfather and had ended up sleeping on the street.

He had then borrowed money from someone he thought was a friend and got into debt and this suggested Bah had been groomed into the drug business, she said.

She added the only person he considered a true friend had been stabbed to death when he was 16.

Bah has two previous convictions for possession of cannabis but the officer said he would often smoke this to relieve himself of the pain of losing his friend.

He initially attended a college but could not maintain attendance because he became homeless she said.

However she said Bah had now moved back into his mother’s house, no longer used cannabis and his main concern about a custodial sentence would be the affect on his three siblings who he helps care for as the eldest.

Judge David Wilson sentenced Bah to 20 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, along with 160 hours unpaid work, being subject to an electronically monitored curfew between 9am and 6pm for six months, 12-month trail monitoring and the drugs and phone Bah was found with are to be destroyed.

He added: “It appears you are a young man of potential but fall into the wrong company as you have done this time and you may well find the suspended sentence activated.”