THE ‘MR BIG’ OF A NATIONWIDE HEROIN NETWORK USED T

THE ‘MR BIG’ OF A NATIONWIDE HEROIN NETWORK USED TENNIS

STAR DAVID LLOYD’S SPORTS CLUB IN HOUNSLOW TO STORE MORE THAN

#100,000 WORTH OF THE KILLER DRUG.

BUSINESSMAN SAROOP SINGH KUNDI WAS SPOTTED BY UNDER COVER

POLICE FERRYING THE DRUGS IN PLASTICS FROM THE LOCKER ROOMS OF THE

CLUB.

AND AFTER COMPLETING DRUGS DEALS HE USED THE LOCKERS TO STORE

THE PROFITS, KNIGHTSBRIDGE CROWN COURT HEARD.

BUT THE RACKET WAS SMASHED BY A POLICE UNDERCOVER OPERATION

RESULTING IN FIVE CONVICTIONS AND TOTAL JAIL SENTENCES OF 38 YEARS.

THE SIX MONTH ‘OPERATION RITA’ INVOLVED REGIONAL CRIME SQUADS

THROUGHOUT ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.

DETECTIVES FOLLOWED A TRAIL BACK TO SOUTHALL, MIDDLESEX WHERE

THEY OBSERVED LARGE SCALE DEALING TAKING PLACE.

THEY SNARED KUNDI

AFTER ARRESTING A MAN – KNOWN ONLY AS MR A – WHO AGREED TO INFORM ON

HIM.

SAROOP SINGH KUNDI, 36, WAS JAILED FOR SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS

AFTER ADMITTING POSSESSING HEROIN WITH INTENT TO SUPPLY.

HE FURTHER

ADMITTED POSSESSING A SMALL AMOUNT OF CANNABIS AND WAS JAILED FOR A

FURTHER 18 MONTHS CONCURRENT.

PIARA TAKHAR, 44, WAS JAILED FOR SIX YEARS AFTER PLEADING NOT

GUILTY TO POSSESSING HEROIN WITH INTENT TO SUPPLY AND A FURTHER FIVE

YEARS CONCURRENT FOR POSSESSING THE DRUGS AND ATTEMPTING TO SUPPLY.

SENTENCING THE PAIR JUDGE SACHS SAID: ‘YOU STAND CONVICTED OF

HEROIN DEALING WHICH BRINGS MISERY, DEGRADATION AND EVENTUALLY IN

SOME CASES DEATH TO ITS USERS WHO IN LARGE MEASURES COMMIT CRIME

THEMSELVES TO FUND THEIR ADDICTION.

‘IT IS NOT EVEN SUGGESTED AS AN EXPLANATION YOU ARE HEROIN

ADDICTS.

YOU ARE CONCERNED PURELY AND SIMPLY TO MAKE MONEY FROM THIS

DREADFUL TRADE.

‘

JUDGE SACHS ADDED THAT BOTH MEN ‘WERE IN A VERY GAVE

SITUATION.

‘

SINCE SEPTEMBER LAST YEAR PARLIAMENT HAS DECREED SENTENCES

SHALL BE INCREASED FROM A MAXIMUM OF 14 YEARS TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT.

NOT WITHSTANDING THAT TRADE IN HEROIN CONTINUES WHOLLY UNABATED.

‘

THE JUDGE ACCEPTED TAKHAR WAS A ‘BEGINNER’ IN THE TRADE WHILE

IT WAS KUNDI’S SECOND TRANSACTION.

‘NEVERTHELESS YOU ARE BEGINNERS ON A GRAND SCALE’, HE TOLD

THEM.

KUNDI, OF SCOTTS ROAD, SOUTHALL, WHO RUNS AN ESTATE AGENTS,

TRAVEL AGENTS AND FINANCE BROKERS BUSINESS, WAS SAID TO BE ‘CLOSE TO

THE SOURCE’ OF HEROIN IMPORTED INTO BRITAIN AND ‘COULD LAY HIS HANDS

ON SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNTS’ OF THE DRUG.

MR RAYMOND STURGESS, PROSECUTING SAID KUNDI USED DAVID LLOYDS

TENNIS CLUB IN SOUTHALL LANE, HOUNSLOW, WHERE HE WAS A MEMBER, TO

STORE THE DRUG IN A LOCKER.

‘ON FEBRUARY 13 THIS YEAR HE WENT TO HOUNSLOW WEST TUBE

STATION TO MEET A MAN AND COLLECTED ONE AND A HALF KILOS OF HEROIN.

HE WAS TO PAY #20,000 FOR THIS.

‘HE TOOK THE DRUG TO HIS LOCKER AT THE CLUB AND THEN WENT TO

MEET TAKHAR’ WHO PAID #10,000 FOR HALF A KILO OF HEROIN.

DETECTIVE SERGEANT DAVID LEADER TOLD THE COURT: ‘OFFICERS

KEPT THE CLUB UNDER OBSERVATION.

HE WAS SEEN COMING OUT WITH TWO

PLASTIC CARRIER BAGS WHICH HE PUT IN THE BOOT OF HIS MERCEDES.

THESE

WERE LATER FOUND TO CONTAIN HEROIN

‘WE HAD ALREADY ARRESTED THE MAN ”A”.

THE INFORMATION WE

HAD FROM TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS WAS THAT THE DEAL BETWEEN KUNDI AND

A WOULD TAKE PLACE AT THE CLUB, BUT THE PLACE WAS CHANGED AND KUNDI

DROVE OFF INTO SOUTHALL WHERE HE MET TAKHAR.

WE HAD NO IDEA HE WAS GOING TO TURN UP BUT WE GOT THE

REGISTRATION NUMBER OF HIS VOLVO WHICH WE TRACED TO EDINBURGH’.

MR STRUGESS SAID KUNDI LATER TOLD POLICE ‘IT WASS GREED.

IDO

NOT LIKE HEROIN,IT WAS A WAY OF MAKING #2,000 TO PAY MY DEBTS.

‘

COUNSEL ADDED: ‘IT WAS A HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL OPERATION’.

ANALYSIS SHOWED 936 GRAMMES OF THE DRUG WAS 43 PER CENT PURE

AND 160 GRAMMES WAS 39 PER CENT PURE – WORTH BETWEEN #100,000 AND

#130,000 ON THE STREET.

MR RICHARD DU CANN, QC, SAID KUNDI’S FINANCIAL POSITION ‘WAS

AS DIRE TODAY AS WHEN THIS MAN FIRST STRODE INTO DISASTER.

HE TRIED

TO MAKE MONEY TO HELP THIS DESPERATE SITUATION.

‘

AND HE SAID KUNDI HAD TOLD THE POLICE THE NAME OF THE PERSON

INVOLVED IN INDIA ‘BUT THIS HAS NOT YET LED TO NAY ACTION BY THE

INDIAN AUTHORITIES’.

MR MICHAEL ADDISON FOR TAKHAR, OF WESTBOURNE GARDENS,

EDINBURGH, SAID HIS CLIENT’S INVOLVEMENT WAS A ‘ONE OFF OFFENCE.

‘

‘IT LOOKS AS IF KUNDI IS THE WHOLESALER WHILE TAKHAR IS ONE

OF THE RETAILERS’.

IN FRONT OF ANOTHER JUDGE SITTING AT KNIGHTSBRIDGE CROWN

COURT ZULFIQAR AHMED, 40, OF RIDSDALE AVENUE, WITHINGTON, MANCHESTER

WAS JAILED FOR FOUR AND A HALF YEARS FOR SUPPLYING FOUR OUNCES OF

HEROIN WORTH AROUND #40,000 AT STREET PRICES.

POLICE TRACED HIM TO

THE SAME NETWORK.

TWO OTHER MEN HAVE ALREADY BEEN JAILED FOR THEIR PART IN THE

NETWORK, ONE FOR EIGHT AND A HALF YEARS AND THE OTHER FOR FIVE YEARS.

AFTER THE HEAFING A SENIOR DETECTIVE INVOLVED IN OPERATION

RITA SAID: ‘THIS WAS THE SUCCESSFUL CULMINATION WHICH HAS LED TO

THE CONVICTIONS OF FIVE MEN WHILE ANOTHER IS ON THE RUN.

‘THE COMBINED EFFORTS OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE DRUG SQUAD

AND REGIONAL CRIME SQUADS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY LED TO THE

PROSECUTION OF MEN INVOLVED IN THE NATIONWIDE DISTRIBUTION OF

HEROIN.

‘

ENDS