IN THE NEWS BRADFORD MINICAB DRIVER AMONG FOUR MEN
JAILED FOR TOTAL OF 26 YEARS
Four men, including a Bradford minicab driv- er, have been jailed for a total of more than 26 years for their roles in a multi-million pound international drugs conspiracy.
The Bradford Tele- graph and Argus reports that father-of- six Mazafar Iqbal was caught transporting £1m of heroin in his cab when he worked for Bradford firm Girlington Private Hire in October, 2009. Iqbal, 41, from Brad- ford, was locked up for seven years and two months at Bradford Crown Court last month.
Described in court as a “trusted courier”, he was arrested on the M5 taking 20 kilo-
grammes of heroin from West Yorkshire to Birmingham. It was heard he was caught up in a drugs ring stretching from Brad- ford across the north of England to Holland. Judge Robert Bartfield told the four defen- dants: “You were all playing for very high stakes indeed.”
With Iqbal in the dock were Mohammed Arif, 39, from Oldham; John Chapman, 30, from Wetherby; John Clark, 29, from West Lothian, Scotland; and Zahid Iqbal, 30, from Rochdale. Arif, who had almost £8,000 cash and two hydraulic presses suit- able for compressing heroin at his home, was locked up for nine
pleaded guilty to con- spiracy to supply Class A drugs.
Heroin and cocaine valued at more than £2 million were seized by the police between October, 2009 and February, 2010.
Mazafar Iqbal
years and four months. Chapman was impris- oned for five years and 11 months and Clark, who left his finger- prints on heroin packages, was jailed for four years and three months.
Zahid Iqbal, said to be a “significant player” in the conspiracy,
All the defendants with
connections in Hol- land, will be sentenced at a later date.
On October 28, 2009, police stopped Maza- far Iqbal’s Volkswagen Transporter cab and seized £1m of heroin in compressed blocks imported to the UK from Amsterdam. Two months later, police swooped on two Bradford houses and seized large quantities of drugs and cash. The operation also saw £50,000 of heroin seized from a car in Rooley Lane, Bradford. At a house in West Bowling, Bradford, offi-
cers found £632,000 of heroin and cocaine valued at £12,680. They also seized £80,000 of cocaine and £341,000 of heroin in black bin bags in the attic of a house in Can- terbury. More drugs were also recovered from a wheelie bin. On February 26 last year, Chapman was stopped near the M62 Chain Bar roundabout with £133,440 of coc- aine and £1,456 in cash. When Arif’s home was raided, almost £8,000 was recovered from behind a mirror. The defence barrister for Mazafar Iqbal said he was taking cocaine at the time and got into debt.
Judge Bartfield said: “This was wholesale
dealing in Class A drugs in very substan- tial quantities. It was an enterprise in which you all had your sepa- rate roles to play.” After the case, DI Noel Devine, of West York- shire Police Crime Division, told the Argus: “This has been a large scale investiga- tion and has demonstrated how police forces work across borders to tack- le criminality.
“As a result, we have seized millions of pounds of Class A drugs and prevented them from reaching the streets of our local communities. The length of the sentences they have received reflects the serious- ness of the crimes.”
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