Gangsters Jailed After Using Flower Business To Import Guns and Drugs
Gangsters who used a wholesale flower business to import guns and millions of pounds worth of drugs have been jailed.
Gangsters who used a wholesale flower business to import guns and millions of pounds worth of drugs have been jailed. Dutch national Mohammed Imran Bhegani, 40, was sentenced to 36 years behind bars at Preston Crown Court on Thursday, as head of the international crime operation. His gang used the flower business as cover to smuggle lorry-loads of cocaine, heroin, MDMA, amphetamine, cannabis, firearms and ammunition across the Channel to their depot in Accrington, Lancashire. The drugs were then sold on to dealers across the UK before the operation was dismantled by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Dutch National Crime Squad. Bhegani's right-hand man Sajid Osman, 44, from Bromley Street, Blackburn, was also jailed today for 26 years, with others in the gang given sentences of between 17 years and 27 months. They were caught after four separate drugs seizures in 2014, three made at the UK controls at the Channel Tunnel terminal in Coquelles, northern France, and one in Accrington. Drugs seized had a street value of almost #30 million but more than a dozen other cross-Channel runs had taken place before they were caught. In March 2014, Border Force officers found two guns, a pistol and a sub- machine gun with a silencer and laser sight and 28 rounds of ammunition, and more than 600 kilos of cannabis resin and skunk, 60 kilos of amphetamine, 50 litres of liquid amphetamine, six kilos of cocaine and one kilo of MDMA. Dutch lorry driver Pieter Martens was jailed for 24 years for his role in that importation. Days later another seizure was made from a lorry at the Channel Tunnel, this time containing almost a tonne of cannabis, amphetamine, heroin and cocaine. Then on July 1 2014, Nigel Watson, 52, from Telford, Shropshire, was arrested at Coquelles after a truck he was driving was found to contain 66lb (30kg) of heroin and 99lb (45kg) of MDMA. The NCA and Dutch police then linked all the importations to Bhegani, from Arnhem, Holland, and Osman, and found that they had been involved in another 13 separate runs from the continent to the UK. Bhegani made all the arrangements, getting consignments delivered to premises in Albion Mill, Accrington, rented and operated by Osman and another man, Nizami Esshak, 56. Dutch lorry driver Benny Planken, 30, was later arrested after being identified as having imported the cannabis found in Albion Mill. All the gang were convicted of importation offences, with Bhegani and Osman also convicted of importing firearms. Greg McKenna, NCA regional head of investigations, said: In terms of organised crime, Mohammed Imran Bhegani was right at the top of the tree.He was an international drug dealer with high-level contacts in mainland Europe. Osman and Esshak were his trusted associates, charged with overseeing the UK end of the operation, taking delivery of the consignments and arranging the onward distribution.To operate on such a commercial scale the group needed the professional skills of hauliers like Watson and Planken, among others, to bring in their illicit cargo.'' Other gang members jailed today were: Esshak, of Willows Lane, Accrington, for seven years; Taimur Zahid, 28, of Egerton Road South, Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, Manchester, for 27 months; and Hussain Farooq, 27, of Fox Street, Stockport, for two years. Lorry drivers Watson, of Clunbury Road, Telford, was sentenced to 17 years in prison and Planken, of Streefkerk, Netherlands, jailed for 11 years.