Birmingham drug smuggling gang member jailed for 16 years

Nadeem Aslam, from Moseley, is caged for 16 years for part played in £12million drug smuggling operation

Three smugglers have been jailed for a total of 24 years after one of the biggest ever seizures of drugs at a busy UK port.

The men from Birmingham attempted to import £12 million-worth of heroin which would have brought misery to the city’s streets.

 

Nadeem Aslam, 32, of Trafalgar Road, Moseley, who was involved in a plot to sneak the huge consignment into Birmingham under the floorboards of a lorry has been jailed for 16 years.

Mohammed Khan, 35, from Shawsdale Road, Buckland End, and Manjinder Thethy, 34, from George Street, Handsworth, had been earlier jailed for four years each after admitting attempting to import a class A drug.

Aslam had been found guilty in May of conspiracy to import the drug by a jury at Birmingham Crown Court.
An earlier trial had to be aborted after a female juror, who had allegedly been drinking, fell asleep.
She was subsequently fined £250 for contempt.

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Rotherham man in drug-pushing case challenges convictions

Omar Sadique was arrested after detectives smashed a drug supply organisation near Sittingbourne.

He was convicted at Maidstone Crown Court in February of assisting in the supply of class A and B drugs and conspiracy to supply cocaine.

But the 30-year-old, of Regent Street, Kimberworth, was given the go-ahead for a full appeal hearing, after his lawyers argued his convictions were “unsafe”.

The prosecution case at trial was that Sadique, through a business he owned and ran, sold chemicals to the Kent gang which were then used as cutting agents to 'bulk out' illicit drugs.

Sadique denied any wrongdoing, but was found guilty of the offences following a five-week trial with a number of other defendants.

His lawyers now argue his convictions should be overturned by the Appeal Court, because of legal issues relating to the validity of the charges that were brought against him.

Saying that careful consideration needed to be given to the case, Lord Justice Laws ordered there should be a day-long hearing of Sadique’s case — before three senior judges — at an unspecified later date.

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