THE partner of a man gunned down by a drugs gang has told jurors how he became mixed up with members of the Albanian network.

Jennifer Buller said her husband, Hamawand Ali Hussein, became involved through his occasional work as a recovery driver.

Ms Buller told Teesside Crown Court that she was aware of his involvement but had been reassured that it was ‘nothing big’ that he was involved in.

The father-of-two was found shot dead in a terraced house in Hartlepool when he was allegedly lured there by members of the Albanian drugs gang.

The mother-of two said her husband’s cocaine use had increased in the time leading up to his death in September 2019.

The Northern Echo: Hemawand Ali HusseinHemawand Ali Hussein

She told the court she had become ‘concerned’ about his behaviour because he seemed to in an ‘agitated state’ and ‘under pressure’.

Francis Fitzgibbon QC, prosecuting, said: “Looking at the statement that you gave to the please, you said you recalled him saying, two weeks before he died – “you can’t imagine the pressure I am under at the minute, everything has gone wrong’.

“Did he say any more about it? Did he say what it was?”

Ms Buller replied: ‘No.”

Eugert Merizaj is accused of helping to organise the killing of Mr Hussein by persuading him to a visit the house on Charterhouse Street to look at a potential drug cannabis farm site.

Earlier in the trial, Mr Fitzgibbon said a trawl through mobile phones belonging to Merizaj and his associates placed them in the area at the time of the killing and CCTV footage captured them running away from the scene just minutes after the fatal shot was fired.

He told jurors that Merizaj played a key role in getting the shotgun into the terraced property the day before the alleged murder and is the days leading up to it.

The prosecution barrister told the jury that three other men had already been found guilty of manslaughter at an earlier trial but reminded members to make a decision on only the evidence they hear during the trial.

Noza Saffari, 39, of Park Lane, Middlesbrough, was jailed for 15 years after he was convicted of manslaughter and cleared of murder.

Qazim Marku, 25, of Maxwell Road, West Drayton, in London, Dorian Pirija, 33, of Trillo Avenue, Bolton, each got 19 years after they were also found guilty of manslaughter and cleared of murder.

A fourth man, Anxelo Xhaferi, was cleared of both charges.

Mr Fitzgibbon said other members of the gang have still not been traced.

Merizaj, of Montague Street, Leicester, denies murder.

The trial continues.

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