Robbers wearing Covid masks stabbed a drug dealer to death for his money and drugs in Barnet, a court has been told.

Five men are alleged to have burst into 25-year-old Olsi Kuka’s home in Whetstone and attacked him with two knives on May 11 last year.

The Old Bailey heard that the victim’s cousin, Alush Kaka, was also injured in the early morning raid.

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

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.

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.

The five men on trial are Ozan Seran, 27, of no fixed address; Bulent Bakir, 26, of Old Road, Enfield; Santana Thompson, 20, of Aldriche Way, Waltham Forest; Daige Ramsey, 24, of Winchester Road, Waltham Forest and Reuben Bernard, 18, of Wootton, Northamptonshire.

They are all charged with murder, wounding with intent and conspiracy to rob and deny the charges.

Opening the trial yesterday (March 29), 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 trial at the Old Bailey continues.

Reporting by PA.