Drug dealer who posted videos on Snapchat waving a knife around a club is caught with Class A drugs

An ‘arrogant’ drug dealer who posted videos waving a knife in a club on Snapchat has been convicted of Class A drug offences.

Abel Buafo, 23, of Berry Lane, Lambeth, brazenly filmed himself on social media with a knife in a North London nightclub.

He pleaded guilty to numerous offences between March 12, last year, and on Thursday, July 29, including possession of a knife, possession of Class A drugs (MDMA and cocaine), possession of a Class B drug (cannabis), possession of criminal property and being concerned in the supply of a Class A drug (cocaine).

He will be sentenced at Inner London Crown Court next month on September 17.

The court heard that detectives were alerted to Snapchat videos of Buafo at a nightclub on Silver Street in Enfield, on December 22, 2019 where he recorded himself in ‘selfie style’ waving a black folding knife around the venue.

The footage caught on CCTV showed Buafo dancing and singing while waving the knife around, pointing it at his phone’s camera as well as towards people.

The footage also showed Buafo ‘fist bumping’ people while holding the knife.

He is seen several times getting the knife out of his pocket and flicking it open.

At one point he is even seen to drop it on the floor before picking it up.

In the Snapchat footage, he says he has his “blicky at the rave” while holding the knife up to the camera – blicky is a slang term for knife.

In Snapchat footage of Buafo outside the club, saying: “I’ve got my blicky on me.”

His friend nudges him and says “shhh” to which Buafo replies: “I don’t even care about the feds bruv, on my mum’s life.”

Later that day he posted an image on Snapchat looking sad with the caption “lost my shank.” Shank is also a slang term for knife.

On February 11 2020, cops forced entry to his home address on Berry Lane where they noticed that the sink was overflowing with a number of plates, which had a white coloured layer of bubbles forming on them.

Officers noted that they were not ‘typical washing-up bubbles’ but something derived from a diluted powder of chemical – giving the impression that Buafo had hurriedly flushed something down the sink.

A sample was taken of the white powder in the sink, which was found to be phenacetin, a well-known cutting agent for making crack cocaine.

Cops searched the property and found an overwhelming amount of drugs paraphernalia as well as scales, snap bags, a hydraulic press, cannabis and MDMA pills.

They also found £225 in cash and £1,200 in counterfeit cash as well as a ‘Rambo-style’ knife.

A search of another address linked to Buafo on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle, recovered a large bag of cannabis, 903mg of cocaine, two scales and snap bags.

Buafo was arrested and taken to a South London police station where he offered no prepared statement and answered no comment to all questions put to him, even when he was shown the CCTV and Snapchat footage.

Detectives examined Buafo’s phone where they found evidence of drug supply going back to September 2018 as well as evidence of him living a lavish lifestyle with a photo album of expensive items.

Detective Sergeant Raymond Sekalongo, the investigating officer who was on the Central South’s Proactive Investigations team at the time, said: “Buafo was arrogant enough to think he was above the law and thought he could not only take a knife into a nightclub – but broadcast himself on social media doing it.

“Buafo was wrong not to ‘care about the feds,’ because the Met is absolutely committed to taking offensive weapons and drugs off the streets of London.

“The knife in the nightclub and the Rambo knife found in Buafo’s address is yet another example of the intractable link between drug supply and violence.

“Those carrying weapons and supplying drugs should expect a visit from us in the near future.”