Jay Slater’s pal ‘Johnny Vegas’ pictured sitting on doorstep of Airbnb where missing teen took his final Snapchat
CONVICTED drug dealer Ayub Qassim can be seen in a photograph on the doorstep of the Airbnb where Jay Slater stayed before he vanished.
Jay took his last photo there after Qassim, known as ‘Johnny Vegas’, invited the Brit back to his holiday let along with an unnamed friend.
Jay’s last post was a Snapchat of a mosaic-tiled doorstep at Casa Abuela Tina with his hand holding a cigarette.
After leaving the Airbnb later on the morning of June 17, he made a panicked phone call to a friend and hasn’t been seen since.
Qassim, 31, filmed himself on those same steps and shared the video online.
The convicted drug dealer has hit out at speculation over his involvement in the mystery case and insists he has “nothing to hide”.
He booked the Airbnb under the surname Abdul, and along with his friend spoke to Spanish police after Jay vanished.
Officials deemed them “irrelevant” to the ongoing investigation and let them fly home to the UK the very next day.
The Sun previously revealed Qassim’s identity, filling in a huge blank on one of the two mystery men Brit teen Jay left a rave with before he disappeared.
He was put behind bars for nine years in 2015 as the ringleader of a London-based gang dealing heroin and crack cocaine in Cardiff.
The 31-year-old also has close ties to a legal cannabis cafe in Tenerife owned by his childhood friend, acclaimed drill rapper Potter Payper.
Today former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who is on the ground in Tenerife, revealed more about the night Jay disappeared.
The 19-year-old went to Qassim’s Airbnb – called Casa Abuela Tina – in northwest Tenerife at around 5am on June 17.
Mark – who worked on the Madeleine McCann case – tracked down Qassim and quizzed him on the mystery of Jay’s disappearance.
Mark said: “We know the two men that took Jay back to their rental apartment were key people to speak to.
“And as a result, I’ve now spoken in some detail to one of these men, Ayub Qassim, who is known as Johnny Vegas.”
In a huge development, the former cop also revealed: “And I’ve also identified the other male who was with him, but I’ve not yet spoken to him”.
Mark described Qassim’s version of events – including Jay’s insistence on leaving the Airbnb early that morning despite the offer of a lift.
He goes on: “Ayub says, he says to him, mate, just chill out. I’ll drop you off in town when I wake up properly.
“He [Jay] went, no, no, no, no. I’m hungry. I need to get a scran. And the woman told me I can get a bus every 10 minutes to Los Cristianos.
“He [Ayub] then says he gets a call from a friend of Jay’s who says that he’s in a ditch somewhere and he’s been cut by a cactus.”
Mark claims his efforts have “opened up an established criminal network with links to drugs, violent crime and thefts”.
Qassim, who The Sun revealed was jailed for nine years in 2015, previously insisted: “Jay came to the house alive, and he left the house alive.”
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 MYSTERIOUS CASE OF JAY SLATER
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday July 8 marks three weeks since Jay Slater, a 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished in Tenerife.
The apprentice bricklayer, who flew out to the popular holiday island for a rave festival with friends Lucy Law and Brad Page, has made headlines around the country.
On Sunday June 16 the three of them headed off to one of the events at Papagayo nightclub.
In the early hours of Monday 17 – Lucy and Brad were ready to head back to their hotel, but Jay wanted to keep partying.
It was then that he left the south of the island and headed to an Airbnb in the northwest with two British men.
The Sun revealed the identity of one of them – convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, who spent nine years behind bars in the UK.
For days it was thought that the second mystery man went by the name ‘Johnny Vegas’.
On Sunday former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who is out in Tenerife investigating, said Qassim told him he is in fact the man behind the nickname ‘Johnny Vegas’.
We don’t yet know the identity of the second man – who remains a key part of the puzzle in Jay’s mysterious disappearance.
Qassim claims he drove Jay and the friend back to their accommodation and said they all went to sleep.
In the morning he offered to drive the teen back to the Los Cristianos resort after a nap, but Jay, hungry and tired, said he wanted to leave immediately.
Lucy, the last person to speak to Jay, claims she had a panicked call from him soon after he left the holiday let, telling her he was lost and thirsty, his phone was about to die and that he’d been cut by a cactus.
Jay had been seen by the owner of the Airbnb that morning wandering around near the Rural de Teno park – a mountainous region close-by.
He is believed to have been attempting the 11-hour trek back to his hotel, despite the alleged offer of a lift and more buses scheduled for the day.
It was there that his phone last pinged – and he hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Mark Williams-Thomas has claimed he left the Airbnb quickly, and was “scared”.
Bizarrely, Qassim says he was woken up that morning by a phone call from an unnamed friend of Jay, saying he was “in a ditch” somewhere and had been “cut by a cactus”.
Jay’s friend Lucy claimed to have “tracked down” the two men in the Airbnb after he vanished – quizzing them on the morning of Jay’s disappearance.
Some reports have suggested Lucy knew the two men, although it is not clear how.
She has dubbed his disappearance “weird and suspicious”.
Both men were questioned by Spanish cops on June 17 but quickly deemed “irrelevant” to the investigation and cleared to fly back to the UK.
Police spent almost two weeks searching for Jay in the Tenerife mountains, scouring a 2,000ft ravine, before calling it off on Sunday June 30.
Jay’s family have repeatedly slammed the Spanish investigation into his bizarre disappearance.
His uncle, Glen Duncan, is convinced of “third party involvement”.
And the teen’s devastated dad, Warren Slater, says “everything stinks”
He told The Sun: “My starting position, I’ve said this from day one, ask the two men who’ve taken him – and then start from there.”
A number of unanswered questions remain, over why Jay would have travelled so far with two older men he didn’t know, why said men would have taken him in, and why he braved the Tenerife mountains with no phone battery, water or heat protection for a day-long walk.