BUKHARI: DRUGS NETWORK BROUGHT DOWN BY ACCOUNTS LEDGER
Six members of a drugs gang which plotted to flood Britain with half a tonne of heroin have been jailed for a total of 100 years.
Ringleader Akbar Bukhari, 28, used his skills as a business student to mastermind the operation using a detailed accounts book.
The records indicated when batches of drugs were ‘in stock’ as well as the quantities supplied to individual customers.
Bukhari was arrested after a surveillance operation by SOCA observed him and his right hand man David Edwards exchange a holdall in a street in the Small Heath area of Birmingham.
Inside the bag officers found a firearm and ammunition, weighing scales, counterfeit banknotes and the ledger which identified the five other members of the gang and their contacts in the Netherlands.
Bukhari will be sentenced next month after admitting his role in the trafficking of at least 420kg of the drug over a two-year period between January 2007 and May 2009.
Edwards, Lee Whelan, Abdul Haque and Kevin Smith also pleaded guilty in June 2010. Brian Blankson and Steven Dobson were convicted at trial on 16 May 2011.
Haque, Dobson, Smith and Edwards were enlisted by Bukhari to divide the drugs into blocks, package them for sale, and store them. They would also transport the drugs and related money throughout England and Scotland. Brian Blankson and Lee Whelan were customers of Bukhari’s group who would distribute the drugs to areas of London, Merseyside, the Midlands and Scotland.
Bukhari and Edwards are already serving 6.5 and 6 year sentences respectively for the firearms offence. Haque is also in prison having previously been convicted of supplying heroin.
Assisted by SOCA, the Dutch gang was dismantled by the Netherlands’ National Crime Squad, which seized 49kg of cocaine in Rotterdam during the process. The UK investigation was assisted by officers from the Merseyside, Metropolitan, Staffordshire and West Midlands Police forces.
SOCA’s Richard Watson said: ‘This is the end of the road for a crime group that did major damage to UK communities. It was led by an individual who chose to apply his business aptitude to drug trafficking, and the sheer scale of his gang’s criminal dealings show how important it was that this network was identified and dismantled.
‘The lesson for criminal gang members is clearly that no matter how intelligent, educated or professional your associates are, you can never trust them to keep you out of trouble with the law. The members of this network have learnt that the hard way.’
Bukhari, of Talfourd Street, Small Heath, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin and money laundering and is due to be sentenced on 3 August 2011.
Brian Blankson, 34, of Bloomhall Road, Norwood, southeast London, was sentenced to 15 years for Conspiracy to Supply heroin and six years for money laundering, to run consecutively.
Steven Dobson, 33, of Knowlsley Road, Bootle, was sentenced to 15 years for Conspiracy to Supply heroin and six years for money laundering, to run consecutively.
David Edwards, 44, of Gorsey Lane, Liverpool, was jailed for to 11.5 years for Conspiracy to Supply heroin and six years for money laundering, to run consecutively.
Abdul Haque, 29, of Birmingham, wwas jailed for 9.5 years for Conspiracy to Supply heroin and six years for money laundering, to run consecutively.
Kevin Smith, 43, of Tipton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin. Sentenced to five years for money laundering, to run consecutively.
Lee Whelan, 38, of Haroldene Grove, Prescott, Liverpool, was sentenced to 13.5 years for Conspiracy to Supply heroin and six years for money laundering, to run consecutively.
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