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Drug dealer who claimed to fight ISIS was mostly high on ketamine in Syria

Aiden James wrote told his UK pals he was a commander in the People's Protection Units and regularly came under attack from ISIS

A deluded cocaine dealer who claimed to be fighting against Isis in Syria only fired his rifle once in anger and spent most of his time high on ketamine.

Aiden James travelled to the Middle East in August 2017 wanting to fight alongside Kurdish units battling against the Islamic extremists.

He told friends back in the UK that he was a commander in the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) and regularly came under attack.

In messages from the time, the 29-year-old wrote: Lost good friends, met great ones, fought on front line numerous times, killed Daesh (Isis) soldiers, been shot at many times by Isis and our own guys.

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James was so mentally unstable that his platoon never allowed him to touch weap(Image: Daily Star)

Drove humvys [sic], sat on roof as drove through desert, attacked by suicide vehicles many times, mortar fire, sniper RPG, drones, chilled with donkey.

In reality he only fired his rifle once in action and became so mentally unstable - made worse by his constant use of ketamine - that he wasnt allowed to touch weapons, a source said.

He later threatened to kill his platoon, prompting them to beat him up and dump him at a taxi rank in Syria.

James, from Liverpool, later travelled to Baghdad where he used his dole money to buy a flight to Amsterdam, a source said.

But before he left Iraq he married a former Isis bride eight days after meeting her in Erbil - despite him having a girlfriend back in the UK.

The unnamed woman was totally unaware of this and paid 180 for his flight from Holland to the UK - where he was arrested by anti-terror cops.

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James was kicked out and 'beaten up' after he threatened to kill his platoon(Image: Facebook)

A source explained: He made out he was commander in the YPG. He has never been a commander. He was only there for four months and never saw any action.

He only ever shot his gun once, they had to lock away the guns because of his mental health.

They beat him up and kicked him out in the end because he went absolutely mental and threatened to kill everyone. He started talking to himself and was taking ketamine all the time.

He only fired his gun once and Isis were so far away it wouldnt have hit them.

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He told his friends he had spent time fighting 'on numerous front lines'(Image: PA)

He just fell to pieces when he came across any danger. Instead he would rob dead bodies and anything he could find from villages taken by the YPG and try to sell it in Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistans capital city.)

He is a complete and utter narcissist. A horrible person and totally deluded.

A video passed exclusively to the Daily Star shows James laughing and saying f*ck Daesh (Isis) with YPG fighters while apparently high on ketamine.

James, from Liverpool, was jailed last month for attending a place used for terrorist training in Iraq.

This was because the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had been present.

A jury acquitted him of a second count of the same offence, over training with the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), in Syria.

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James was jailed last month for attending a place used for terrorist training (Image: central news)

He was jailed for 12 months for the terror offence and three years for an unrelated offence of cocaine possession with intent to supply.

Jailing him at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Edis said: Attendance for any purpose at a camp where weapons training for terrorist purposes is provided is an offence, and there is no defence of reasonable excuse.

The policy of the law is to keep people who are subject to the criminal law of the UK away from such places altogether.

The judge said James was solely convicted for attending a camp where PKK fighters were training, and that fighting alongside the YPG was not terrorism at all.

He added that James had been warned not to fight in Syria by police officers from the Prevent counter-extremism programme, but was in a fragile mental state.

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