SHAME SHAME
FORMER CABBIE JAILED FOR CARRYING DRUGS BETWEEN LIVERPOOL AND SOUTH TYNESIDE
A former cabbie who acted as a drugs courier for two organised crime groups has been put behind bars. The Shields Gazette reports that Baber Azim moved commercial quantities of cocaine from Liverpool to South Tyne- side and made return trips with cash payments. Newcastle Crown Court heard he was paid £500 per delivery and made a total of four separate trips before he was caught by the authorities. The court heard how the 43-year-old had been recruited by a Merseyside crime group and a criminal gang in South Tyneside, who all received prison sentences in April 2022. The crime groups used an electronically operated trap door hidden inside a white van to transport large quantities of high purity drugs across the UK. They used another vehicle, equipped with a heavy duty boot-liner hidden
under a pile of tools, to move around tens of thousands of pounds in criminal cash during an underground con- spiracy between
January 2017 and May 31 2018. The men had attempted to evade detection by communicating via encrypted devices and also used a number of tactics to frustrate police activity. Azim, from Slough, admitted supplying cocaine and possessing cocaine with intent to supply. The court heard Azim got involved in the illegal enterprise after he got into “massive debt” and feared he may lose his family home. Judge Tim Gittens sentenced Azim, who he said was a “family man” with a good work record, to four years and
nine months in jail for the offences. The judge told him: “You became a drugs courier for an organised crime group. Your work as a taxi driver was undoubtedly good cover for that.” Judge Gittens said Azim played a “small but vital” part in the operation and acted under direction of others, but said the defendant would have known he was “part of something bigger”.
HARD UP ROCHDALE CABBIE STRUGGLING DURING LOCKDOWN MOVED £2M IN CRIMINAL CASH
A ‘hard up’ cabbie who moved £2m in criminal cash faces a lengthy sentence. The Manchester Evening News reports that Romiz Ahmed, 38, said he was struggling financially during the Covid lockdown. He was stopped by police carrying out undercover surveillance in Rochdale, and was found with almost £250,000 stashed in two bags for life in his taxi. Ahmed had been involved in a hand- over of cash as part of a complicated money laundering scheme. The alleged boss of the racket was exposed in a law enforcement hack of the highly encrypted EncroChat net- work, known as ‘WhatsApp for criminals’. Police have identified their username on the network, but do not know their true identity.
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Prosecutor Richard Wright QC said: “Over the course of about two months, the defendant Romiz Ahmed collected and transported the best part of £2m in drugs money.” Jurors at Manchester Crown Court were told that Ahmed had ‘fallen on hard times as a taxi driver due to the pandemic’, and began to drive for a businessman he knew. He claimed he was ‘completely unaware’ of what he was transferring. About £100,000 in cash was found at his home, which he claimed was his legitimate savings. Prosecutors told how the alleged money laundering scheme’s boss chatted with an alleged criminal said to be involved in the distribution of ‘mas- sive’ quantities of cocaine worth
‘millions of pounds’ on EncroChat. The alleged drug dealer had a courier who would then meet up with Mr Ahmed where cash would be handed over, Mr Wright said. Ahmed would count the cash in a safe place, often his home, then move it elsewhere. After some meet ups, he drove to London. By May 2020, police had begun monitoring some of the drop offs. On May 21, police struck after a meeting which involved almost £250,000 being handed over. Mr Ahmed, from Rochdale, was found guilty of being concerned in an arrangement which facilitated the acquisition, retention, use of control of criminal property by others. He was due to be sentenced in May.
JUNE 2022
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