Key Points
-
Eighteen people were convicted as part of the UK’s biggest-ever drugs investigation - Sohail Qureshi was part of a group which smuggled up to £7bn of drugs over two-and-a-half years
- The Scot was recruited in 2017 to develop a transport route into the UK from Europe
- Onions, garlic and ginger were used to cover the smell of the drugs being smuggled into the UK
- Ringleader Paul Green, known as The Big Fella, was sentenced to 32 years imprisonment
A man from Glasgow is among 18 people who have been convicted as part of the United Kingdom’s biggest-ever drugs investigation.
Sohail Qureshi was part of an organised criminal group (OCG) which smuggled up to £7bn worth of illegal drugs from the continent into the UK over a two-and-a-half year period.
National Crime AgencyThe 64-year-old, who also had an address in London, was recruited in 2017 to develop a new transport route into the UK alongside Khaleed Vazeer, 58, and Ghazanfar Mahmood, 53.
He has been convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine and or heroin and conspiracy to import cannabis.
National Crime AgencyQureshi, who is still to be sentenced, was the key link between UK and Dutch OCGs and took his orders from ringleader Paul Green, known as ‘The Big Fella’.
Green was the point of contact for numerous OCGs who paid a fee to ship heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis into the UK.
National Crime AgencyThe 59-year-old and his fellow conspirators went to “extraordinary lengths” to disguise their involvement, setting up a series of front companies and warehouses in the Netherlands and the north of England using fake and stolen identities.
Drugs would be hidden within pallets of fresh produce in the Netherlands then shipped into the UK by innocent haulage firms, before the criminals would remove the drugs for distribution to their fee-paying customers as part of the “transport service”.
National Crime AgencyOnions, garlic or ginger were often chosen to transport the drugs as they helped conceal the smell.
National Crime AgencyAmong the OCG customers was Merseyside mob enforcer John Kinsella who was shot dead by a hitman in May 2018 as he walked his dogs with his pregnant partner.
Prosecutor Andrew Thomas KC said a feature of the sequence of conspiracies between March 2016 and September 2018 was the “determination to continue the importations even after arrests and/or drug seizures”.
National Crime AgencyHe told jurors: “As soon as one company became exposed, they would switch to another one.”
Only six seizures of drugs were made but National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators were able to prove at least 240 consignments took place with up to four shipments per week.
National Crime AgencyAmong the many items of evidence gathered were messages on Green’s encrypted Encrochat phone, with a handler name of ‘Duckfarmer’, to accomplices in which he arranged shipments.
Green had no previous convictions but had changed his name twice by deed poll from Simon Swift to James Russell and then to Green due to financial difficulties and his self-confessed involvement in property and business fraud.
National Crime Agency“The harm caused beyond the importation is incalculable.
“What you were actually distributing was addiction, misery, social degradation and death.”
The defendants were separated into two trials with reporting restrictions lifted following the conclusion of the second trial which lasted nine months.
The first trial involving Green lasted 23 months as jurors took 141 hours to reach their verdicts.
National Crime AgencyGreen, from Widnes, Cheshire, was jailed for 32 years after he was convicted of conspiracy to import drugs and fraud by false representation.
His “right-hand man”, Steven Martin, 53, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, who organised the finances, was imprisoned for 28 years, while another key member, Muhammad Ovais, 46, from Burnage, Manchester, who was in charge of distributing drugs to OCG customers, was sentenced to 27 years in jail.
National Crime AgencyAmong others sentenced for drugs importation conspiracy charges were fluent Dutch speaker Russell Leonard, 48, from Kirkby, Liverpool, who was jailed for 24 years; and Dutch OCG bosses Johannes Vesters, 54, and Barbara Rijnbout, 53, both of Utrecht, who received prison terms of 20 years and 18 years.
Richard Harrison, NCA regional head of investigations, said: “This was an extremely high-harm OCG that used every tactic possible to evade detection and cheat justice.
National Crime Agency“The offenders smuggled huge quantities of drugs into the UK. They had absolutely no ethics. They stooped incredibly low and left a trail of devastation for entirely innocent people by cloning businesses and stealing identities.
“NCA officers and Dutch partners were tenacious and left no stone unturned in this investigation.”
National Crime AgencyManchester Crown Court heard the case is believed to be the largest drug smuggling operation ever detected in the UK.
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
