A CONVICTED drug dealer who took Jay Slater back to his Airbnb before he vanished is part of a drill rapper’s entourage, The Sun can reveal.
Ayub Qassim, 31, was jailed for nine years in 2015 as the ringleader of a London-based gang dealing heroin and crack cocaine in Cardiff.
The Sun can also reveal that he is closely connected to a legal cannabis cafe on Tenerife owned by his childhood friend, acclaimed drill rapper Potter Payper.
A source told The Sun: “Ayub is one of Potter’s main guys. They go way back and were friends back in London.
“They both grew up in Barking and mixed in the same circles.
“Once Potter opened up the cannabis cafe in Tenerife he decided that Ayub was the guy to run it.”
Ayub – and another mystery man dubbed “Johnny Vegas” – have since been deemed “not relevant” to the case by Spanish police.
But calls are growing for them to step in and help the search for Jay – who has been missing for two and a half weeks.
Initially, it was claimed that Jay went back to the rental with two men he had met on the night, but Qassim told reporters that Jay was a “cool guy” who he knew through friends.
He said: “I let the geezer stay at mine because he had nowhere else to go.
“His friends had all left him.
“I know Jay, through friends, I’m not going to bring someone back to mine if I don’t know them.
“I’m doing the geezer a favour and now my face is all over the news. It’s a bit mental. I haven’t even done anything.”
The apprentice bricklayer, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, had been at an all-night rave Playa de las Americas.
Jay, 19, went back to the remote cottage – called Case Abuela Tina – at around 5am on June 17, just hours before he vanished.
Qassim, who booked the Airbnb under the surname Abdul, and his unnamed friend spoke to Spanish police after Jay vanished before flying back to the UK the following day.
Qassim added: “The only comment I have to make is that Jay came to the house alive, and he left the house alive.
“If I’d fallen out with him would he even come to mine?
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“There were no problems. You’ve seen the last images of him with his red blanket around him.
“I don’t know if he had beef elsewhere because I don’t know him that well, I only know him through friends.”
But Jay’s dad Warren, 58, yesterday questioned why his teenage son ended up at a remote Airbnb with “two grown men”.
Qassim confirmed he had spoken to the Spanish authorities in Tenerife but says he was told by foreign cops not to speak to anyone else.
Asked how well he knew Jay and what he thought of the theories surrounding his disappearance, Qassim said: “Everyone knows each other. I’m not going to slander anyone.
“He’s a cool guy, Jay. He ain’t got a problem with me, I haven’t got a problem with him or his mates.”
Qassim added that he and Jay’s pals all just talk to each other and that “everything was sweet”.
Jay 'left Airbnb feeling scared'
by Katie Davis
JAY Slater left the Airbnb he went to with two men feeling “scared” after admitting to stealing a £12,000 Rolex, an investigator claims.
Former detective Mark Williams-Thomas said the 19-year-old did not want to return to the remote holiday let in northwest Tenerife despite having little phone battery.
Apprentice bricklayer Jay, who had been at a rave all night in Playa de las Americas, travelled north to the Airbnb in Masca village in the early hours of June 17.
During the hour-long drive, Mark claims Jay posted a Snapchat saying he had taken a Rolex worth £12,000 from an unknown person.
Police had been examining security cameras at a beach club and speaking to witnesses about an alleged Rolex theft hours before Jay vanished.
It was reported a brawl broke out at the Papagayo Beach Club in the early hours of June 17 after a “burly” Eastern European man allegedly had his pricey watch stolen.
Mark said he and his team had been “unable to validate” Jay’s claim on Snapchat “in terms of reported theft”.
He added: “However friends of Jay said he would not make this up and the watch was subject of later conversation between the friends.”
According to Mark, the host of the Airbnb told Jay at around 8am there would be a bus two hours later.
Jay then tried to make his way back to his holiday accommodation, faced with an 11-hour walk.
Mark – who worked on the Madeleine McCann case – said Jay talked to at least three friends via message and the phone while trekking back, telling them he was lost.
At around 8.50am he made a final frantic call to friend Lucy, saying he was in the “middle of nowhere” with no water and had just one per cent battery on his phone.
Mark said in a video update today: “He was told to go back by two people to the rental.
“He said he could not do that and that he’d already been walking for 30 minutes and that he was now off road and was walking on a track where there were loose stones.”
Mark has claimed Jay fled the holiday let and was “scared”.
He said: “We have received information that would suggest that Jay left the rental property feeling scared and he would not return to the rental, even though that would have been the most sensible course of action, and also where he could have charged his phone, got some water and made contact with friends.
“We continue to investigate this aspect.”
Qassim spoke to police the day after Jay vanished but cut their holiday short.
They gave officers their details and fully cooperated with the investigation.
When The Sun called at Qassim’s family home in Barking today, a relative said he “didn’t want to say anything” and insisted he insisted he had no questions to answer.
The Sun can reveal that Qassim is close pals with MOBO award winner Potter Payper, 33.
A source said he even runs the rapper’s cannabis cafe in Tenerife, called Potter’s Garden, in Las Americas.
According to social media posts, the venue was broken into and trashed about six weeks ago.
Tourists posted on social media that they had met Ayub at a local cafe in Tenerife.
One said: “Everyday I would go to the coffee shop and see him working and chatting to the club members keeping everyone cool and making sure everything was alright during people’s time at the club.
“We even went for a doob at the beach a few times and also went out on a night out together.”
Another commented: “I know Ayub myself from working in coffee shops.
“Ayub is a nice lad and has the time of day for anyone, always checking on others.”
Qassim grew up with drill rapper Potter – real name Jamel Bousbaa – and even joined him on stage to collect his MOBO for Best Album.
He can be seen sporting a turtleneck and chain with his pal’s name on as the rapper delivered an acceptance speech at the Utilita Arena in Sheffield earlier this year.
The record, Real Back in Style, surged to no 2 on the UK Albums chart making Bousbaa a household name.
Qassim also features in Bousbaa’s video for the song “Love Me How” – which features on the album.
He can be seen awkwardly hugging a pair of scantily clad women whilst on a yacht in the 2024 video.
The cannabis cafe, Potter’s Garden, is located on the island – not far from where Jay was last seen.
The bar is a private “social club” – which cannabis is allowed to be consumed under Spanish Law.
Qassim – who grew up in Barking, East London, with Bousbaa – is understood to have worked at the bar for several months.
Only three months ago footage emerged online of yobs breaking in and ransacking the bar.
Since Slater went missing Potter’s Garden has since taken down its Instagram page.
Bousbaa is also a convicted drug dealer, having pleaded guilty to running a county lines operation supplying crack and heroin in Clacton, Essex, in 2018, earning him a five years and four months prison sentence.
The Sun contacted Bousbaa for comment.
