Derek Chisora's drug-dealing cousin caught running narcotics hotline

Derek Chisora’s drug-dealing cousin proves to judge that Versace trainers and designer clothes found in his home were gifts from the famous boxer

• The heavyweight gave Abdul Faina designer clothes and cash to ‘tide him over’
• A court heard Faina had been selling narcotics to pay off a debt to his dealers 

The drug-dealing cousin of Derek Chisora has proved to a judge thousands of pounds of designer clothes were a gift from the heavyweight boxing star and not bought with cash made through selling narcotics. 

Chisora, who last year bagged more than £6million during his fight against ‘Gypsy King’ Tyson Fury, donated the fancy clothes to relative Abdul Faina.

Faina was reportedly ‘under the control’ of his former dealers, who had ordered him to sell cocaine and heroin for them to pay off a drug debt he had racked up with them. 

Gloucester Crown Court heard how Chisora had given his 34-year-old cousin two pairs of Versace trainers and other designer gear as well as cash to ‘tide him over’. 

Faina – whose nickname was ‘Sky – was found by police ‘surrounded by multiple wraps’ of Class A narcotics during a bust on March 24 last year, with officers later discovering a phone that was linked to the ‘Skyline’ drugs line. 

Derek Chisora (left) donated designer clothes to his drug-dealing cousin, who appeared before a judge after being caught selling narcotics. Chisora is pictured during his fight with Tyson Fury in December 2022

Abdul Faina, 34, was reportedly trying to pay off a drug debt to his former dealers by selling narcotics when he was caught by police in March of last year 

The 34-year-old Congolese national was caught after police spotted a suspected drug deal taking place close to Northfield Passage, in Cheltenham, at 1.15pm earlier that day. 

Prosecutor Alex Small said a ‘known class A drug user’ was approached by a man on a bike with an ‘exchange of some form’ taking place. 

CLICK HERE: Boxing fans outraged that Derek Chisora was allowed to fight Tyson Fury as critics claim Gypsy King was ‘trying not to hurt’ the battered 38-year-old

Officers swooped in and detained the man on the bicycle, who was found to be in possession of two wraps of Class A and a mobile phone linked to the Skyline drugs cartel. 

Police also arrested the other male and later searched his property, which belonged to a ‘vulnerable woman’ – before then spotting a third man in a nearby courtyard. 

‘He was Abdul Faina and he was surrounded by multiple wraps of Class A drugs scattered over the courtyard floor. He was searched and had £405 in cash on his person.’ Mr Small told the court.

‘In the living room at the property there was clear signs of drug dealing. There was a “dealer list”, drug paraphernalia and a mobile phone that operated the Skyline drugs line.

‘The phone was forensically analysed and it revealed multiple text messages connected with drug dealing.’

At Faina’s home, police discovered a number of items of designer clothing, including two pairs of Versace trainers, worth £750 a pair. The 34-year-old was also found with £538.06 in cash and drugs worth an estimated street value of £1,400.

‘Faina, whose nickname was Sky, said in his police interview that he had only gone to the woman’s flat to have a drink and take drugs with the woman and that he had nothing to do with the Skyline drugs line,’ added Mr Small.

Gloucester Crown Court heard Chisora had donated designer clothing and cash to his relative to ‘tide him over’. The heavyweight boxer is pictured during his clash with the Gypsy King, right, in December 2022

‘He maintained throughout that the phone wasn’t his and he stated that there was no chance that he would forensically be connected with this device. This proved to be the case.’ 

Nicholas Clough, defending Faina, said: ‘I have to walk a tightrope in mitigation to explain that when he was released from prison on licence he was targeted by the drug dealers who had supplied him because he had accrued a debt.

‘And so the cycle begins again with Faina being under the dealer’s control further up the chain of command until the drug debt is paid off.

‘The designer clothing and trainers found in his flat were donated to him by his cousin. I don’t have anything in writing to prove this but I have spoken to his cousin, who is a man of some reputation.

‘He is the British heavyweight boxer Derek Chisora who fought Tyson Fury in December last year but lost on a technical knockout in the tenth round. However, he received a substantial sum of money that night that was in excess of £6million.

‘Mr Chisora confirmed to me that he had given the trainers to his cousin, along with other items of designer clothing and some money to tide him over.

‘Therefore these items were not proceeds of crime, but a genuine gift.’ 

The court heard Faina had been sentenced to a 42-month prison term for possession of both class A and B drugs in February 2021, as well as well as an earlier eight-and-half year jail sentence for conspiracy to supply class A. 

He has since been recalled to prison for breaching his parole and he is not due for release until July 2025.

Judge Ian Lawrie KC told Faina: ‘You are not a stranger to these courts… You should have been dealt with much sooner and therefore the appropriate sentence is four years custody.’

The judge ordered the forfeiture and destruction of all the drugs and for the confiscated cash to be donated to Gloucestershire Police’s drug prevention and education programme. 

He also ordered that Faina pay a mandatory surcharge of £190.

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