Drug dealer convicted of rival’s murder after refusing to ditch luxury manbag
A drug dealer who stabbed a rival to death has been convicted of murder after being snared by his Louis Vuitton-style manbag.
Dualla Abdi, 20, was wearing the flash accessory when he knifed Tyreece Scott, 24, in Hounslow, west London, shortly before 1 am on January 16 last year.
While he ditched his clothes after the attack, he refused to dump the bag and it was eventually used to help identify him as the killer, the Old Bailey heard.
His accomplice and getaway driver Ben Laing, 24, from Feltham, was also found guilty of murder.
Reda Mohamed, 24, from Hounslow, west London, and Morgan Allen, 29, from Chertsey, Surrey, were convicted of perverting the course of justice.
Jurors heard how Abdi and Laing had driven up beside Scott and got out. Abdi delivered the fatal blow, but Laing was standing beside him.
Both men then got back in their car and Laing sped off, leaving Scott bleeding to death on the residential street.
Mohamed and Allen helped the pair flee to Morocco, only for the killers to be arrested at Stansted Airport days later on January 19 upon their return to the UK.
Prosecutor Zoe Johnson KC told jurors the background to the murder was linked to drug dealing and Scott had been operating on rival territory.
Before leaving the UK, Laing had handed over a drug-dealing phone referred to as the ‘Rocky Line’ to Mohamed, jurors were told.
Allen was said to be in a relationship with Mohamed and acted under his instructions with both helping Laing and Abdi to escape, the court was told.
Ms Johnson had said: ‘We will never know the precise reason why Tyreece Scott died that night. There is no evidence that he knew the other defendants or had met them before.
‘Drug dealing is an ugly, competitive business in which dealers protect their ‘turf’ at any cost. It was Tyreece Scott’s exposure to that world which led to his murder.’
Evidence including CCTV, mobile phone data and a GPS tracker on the attacker’s hire car made a ‘compelling’ case against the defendants, jurors were told.
At the time of the stabbing, Abdi was wearing a black hooded jacket with a ‘Trapstar’ logo in white on the front of the jacket and what was probably a Louis Vuitton manbag with a distinctive buckle on the strap.
After the murder, Abdi dumped his outfit – except for the manbag, which became important in helping to identify him at the scene, Ms Johnson said.
Ms Johnson asserted that Abdi and Laing had worked as a team with a common purpose when Scott was stabbed.
Abdi did not accept he was the stabber, and while Laing admitted being at the scene, claimed he had no knowledge that his co-defendant was going to stab Scott and did not encourage or participate in any way.
Mohamed and Allen denied knowing anything about the murder, jurors were told.
When Allen was arrested, she admitted knowing Laing as ‘Chunks’, Abdi as ‘Dodgy’ and Mohamed as ‘Rocco’.
She told police she had been in a sexual relationship with Mohamed whose behaviour she described as abusive and controlling.
After the verdicts were delivered, the court heard Abdi had a previous conviction for having a blade in 2022 and was in breach of his suspended sentence when he killed Scott.