Covid mask-wearing robbers killed drug dealer in early morning raid, court told

Covid mask-wearing robbers stabbed a drug dealer to death and ransacked his flat in pursuit of his “ill-gotten gains”, a court has been told.

They burst into 25-year-old Olsi Kuka’s home and attacked him with two knives in an early morning raid, the Old Bailey heard.

The victim’s cousin, Alush Kuka, who was living in the flat in Whetstone, north London, was also injured on May 11 last year.

According to his account, he was sitting up in bed when he heard a banging as if the door was being kicked in, the court was told.

Three of the attackers who went into his room were wearing Covid masks and two had knives, jurors heard.

He was threatened, punched and slashed with a blade and his bed lifted up in a search of his bedroom, it was alleged.

After the robbers left, he found his cousin lying in his bed covered in blood, jurors were told.

The flat had been “ransacked” and potential “hiding places” searched for drugs and money, it was alleged.

Five men are on trial charged together with murder, wounding with intent and conspiracy to rob.

Opening their trial on Wednesday, prosecutor Edward Brown KC said: “Olsi Kuka was killed for his ill-gotten gains so that the team could instead use the drugs and the money.

“These defendants went out together on the night in question to rob, in fact to rob a drug dealer of his drugs and/or his money.

“They were acting together as a team and they were intending to use such force as was necessary to carry out the robbery.”

The robbers arrived and left the property in two Mercedes cars, the court heard.

Mr Brown said evidence suggested the vehicles had also been used in a “reconnaissance” journey a few days before, last May 7.

Ozan Seran, 27, of no fixed address; Bulent Bakir, 26, from Enfield; Santana Thompson, 20, of Waltham Forest; Reuben Bernard, 18, of Northamptonshire, and Daige Ramsey, 24, of Waltham Forest, deny the charges against them.

The trial at the Old Bailey continues.