A DRUG dealer has been jailed for six-and-a-half years after being caught with cocaine, MDMA and cannabis worth tens of thousands of pounds.
Elias Campbell Benyoucef (28) also assaulted two men at a pub, drove a moped without a licence and ran away from police officers who were trying to arrest him.
This week the Royal Court heard that Benyoucef was caught in July 2022 with the drugs when a property owner in St Helier saw “a suspicious Coop carrier bag” in his driveway and called the police.
The bag contained 24.04 grammes of cocaine, 47 MDMA tablets, 23 one-millilitre syringes of THC, and 680.19 grammes of cannabis resin. The total street value of the drugs was between £18,780 and £28,670, Crown Advocate Luke Sette, prosecuting, said.
The police then installed a hidden camera at the property and, according to a summary of facts, saw Benyoucef “attending the area”. They also found his fingerprints on the main bag as well as on the ziplock bags containing the drugs.
When he was arrested at his home, police found a further 53.25 grammes of herbal cannabis.
When they searched his phone, officers found that he had sent messages referring to a “stash” and kept a “deals list” on his notes app – complete with the money he was owed, totalling £33,005.
A video found on his phone showed Benyoucef holding “three large bags of pills and THC syringes” identical to the ones found in the stash bag. Two more videos showed him with large amounts of money, and a fourth video showed someone handling a bar of cannabis resin.
At his home, police officers found a Gucci watch, a red tin that was featured in one of the videos and receipts showing he had spent £3,011.98 between April and August 2022.
In April 2023, Benyoucef was involved in a fight outside St James’ Wine Bar. CCTV footage showed how at first he had tried to pull others away from a fight – but had eventually become involved, kicking one man in the stomach and slapping another in the face.
The court also heard that, in May 2023, Benyoucef wasn’t allowed into the Watersplash Beach Bar at about 11pm, because he was intoxicated. When honorary police officers arrived, he threw a small clear bag to the ground, which contained 721mg of ketamine. A green pill in his pocket was found to contain 385mg of MDMA.
He was caught carrying drugs again on 2 July 2023, when he had 711mg of cocaine on him, and claimed in interview that someone else had put it in his clothing.
The Royal Court also heard that in August that year, Benyoucef was stopped by police officers while driving a moped and failed a breathalyser test. Crown Advocate Sette described how he ran away and shouted: “I am not being arrested.”
Crown Advocate Sette asked for Benyoucef to be jailed for a total of eight years and nine months.
Advocate Mike Preston, defending, said that Benyoucef was “very sorry for having committed all of these offences”.
“He is not some sort of drugs kingpin operating in Jersey; he is, from my understanding, something of a street dealer,” the lawyer said.
The first offences took place more than two years ago. Addressing the delay in progressing the case, Crown Advocate Sette explained that two significant investigations unrelated to Benyoucef had meant that police officers had to be deployed in other areas.
Delivering the court’s sentence, the Bailiff, Sir Timothy Le Cocq, said the court took Beyoucef’s remorse as “genuine”.
“You wish to change your life and improve your future and not to live the same life that you have lived up to now. We accept that.”
The Bailiff was joined by Jurats Christensen, Dulake, Le Heuzé, Opfermann and Entwistle.
