Drug Dealer Jailed for Assisting Fugitive Brother After Fatal Drive-By Shooting

A 25-year-old drug dealer who helped his arrange travel for his fugitive brother after a fatal drive-by shooting outside a primary school has been jailed for 11 years at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Elie Mey, of Inkerman Street, Wolverhampton, organised cash, transport and international flights to help his brother, Israel Mey, flee the country after 24-year-old rival drug dealer Neo Graham was shot dead on Eastfield Road on March 4 last year.

Israel Mey fired six shots from a Glock handgun through the window of a stolen Renault Clio towards three men, fatally striking Graham in the head as parents collected children from the nearby primary school. The shooting arose from a conflict between rival Class A drug syndicates.

Sentencing Mey on Friday, July 17, Judge Michael Chambers KC ruled that he had gone to great lengths to assist his brother’s escape, knowing he had been involved in lethal violence.

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After the shooting, Israel Mey and co-defendant Koketso Ximba, 23, fled to Kipling Road, Wolverhampton, where they concealed the loaded Glock handgun in a JD Sports bag before setting fire to the Renault Clio. They then travelled to Erdington. Elie Mey, who was in Birmingham at the time of the shooting, later drove to Kipling Road to collect the bag containing the firearm.

While Israel Mey and Ximba were driven to Scotland before taking ferries to Northern Ireland, Mey gathered cash and booked international flights online for his brother. Israel Mey later flew abroad and remains at large. Ximba subsequently returned to England, where he was arrested in Liverpool.

On March 5, police stopped a Nissan Juke driven by Mey in Birmingham during an active drug deal involving Aaron Osei, 23, Derrick Da Silva Ferreira, 21, and Fabio Bandarrinha, 21. Officers recovered £7,430 in cash, wraps of crack cocaine and heroin, and the loaded Glock handgun.

Mey admitted assisting an offender, firearms offences, possession with intent to supply Class A drugs, and possession of criminal property. He was also convicted after trial of a second count of assisting an offender.

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The court heard Mey had a previous drug conviction from 2021 and turned to drug dealing after an injury interrupted his university studies.

Among his co-defendants, Ximba was jailed for 20 years for manslaughter. Bandarrinha received 10 years for firearms and drug offences, Osei was sentenced to seven years for drug supply and assisting an offender, and Da Silva Ferreira was jailed for four years.