A retired soccer star faces years behind bars afte
A retired soccer star faces years behind bars after an Old Bailey jury convicted him of masterminding a plot to flood Britain with pnds stlg 7.
3 million worth of heroin today.
(FRI)
Gungor Tekin, who once played for Galatasaray and the national side, headed a gang which smuggled 68 kilos of the killer drug through a Kent port hidden in a minibus.
Tekin, 48, was unaware he was under surveillance by Customs officers, who tailed him as he made his way from London to meet up with the driver.
The jury convicted him of smuggling alongside Czech prison officer Jan Jisl.
Tekin and Jisl, 38, now face sentence on Monday with a third man Yusel Konacli, 42, who had admitted his part in the smuggling plot.
But after deliberating for nearly 34 hours spanning a fortnight the jury cleared another Turk, 37-year-old student Mustafa Mus of smuggling.
It can now be reported that the case was a retrial ordered by the Court of Appeal.
Back in December 1998 Tekin was jailed for 23 years after a trial at Kingston Crown Court.
Jisl was jailed for 16 years while Mus was sentenced then to 11 years after they were all convicted of smuggling.
Tekin had sacked his barrister during that trial and the case continued with him representing himself.
But a retrial was ordered last year when law lords ruled that the case should have been halted after he fired his lawyer.
Bearded Tekin, once a revered football player in his homeland, looked stunned today (Fri) after the jury unanimously found him guilty following another four month trial costing millions of pounds to the taxpayer.
Tekin, who played for Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, ended his illustrious football career in 1981 with the Toronto Metro’s in Canada.
He even boasted of once playing against Brazilian legend Pele who played for the New York Cosmos before his retirement from the game.
But his remark only prompted Judge Hubert Dunn, QC, to ask: ‘Who’s Pele?’
Without the luxury of massive wages paid to current soccer stars, Tekin could not afford the lavish lifestyle he wanted.
An unsuccessful lighting business and failed plans to import black taxi cabs to Istanbul left Tekin with huge debts.
As his legitimate companies lost money Tekin became seduced by the massive profits to be gained from smuggling the killer drug.
Through contacts with Turkish organised crime families headed by godfathers known as ‘Babas’, Tekin was able to put together a smuggling gang.
Drug gangs frequently use the Czech Republic as a smuggling route as it draws less attention to customs than Turkey – a known base for heroin production.
Tekin recruited Jisl to drive the minibus containing 139 packages of the drug from the Czech Republic to Ostend, Belgium, arriving on December 27, 1997.
The heroin was hidden inside a secret compartment in the floor of the vehicle.
Jisl boarded a ferry for Ramsgate accompanied by his wife and children ‘to camouflage the proceedings’, said prosecutor Sir Derek Spencer QC.
He was supposed to drive the van to the Tollgate Hotel on the old A2 near Gravesend.
But instead he stopped the bus at the Travel Lodge on the M2 near Medway.
Jisl then phoned a contact in the Czech Republic, the jury heard.
Tekin and another man then drove to a service station on the M2, unaware they were being followed by a team of Customs officers, to meet up with Jisl.
For nearly an hour the gang then engaged in a series of ‘anti-surveillance tactics’ to avoid detection from officers tracking the gang – under code name Operation Abstain.
Konacli got into the minibus with Jisl and the pair drove to Hackney in east London.
But customs officers intercepted the minibus, seizing the drugs and arrested Jisl.
Tekin and alleged ‘gofer’ Mus left the service station and were later arrested in Kings Cross.
Computer records of incriminating mobile phone calls showed a ‘network of communications involving the defendants and others concerning the importation of this valuable consignment of heroin.
‘
Tekin, of Edgware Rd, Park West Mansions, Edgware, Mus, of Chalk Farm Rd, Camden, and Jisl, of no fixed address, all denied being knowingly concerned in the importation of a class A drug, namely heroin.
ends
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