A Timperley man was today jailed for 20 years for his involvement in what has been described as the UK's "biggest ever drugs conspiracy".
Khaleed Vazeer, 58, of Westwood Avenue, was sentenced to 20 years at Manchester Crown Court.
He was one of 12 members of an organised crime gang who have been sentenced for more than 246 years in total.
The gang included offenders from the UK and the Netherlands and were brought to justice following a long-running National Crime Agency investigation.
From south east England to Scotland, the men supplied other crime groups drugs from its importations – which are believed to have contained more than 50 tonnes of drugs.
The group was led by Paul Green, 59, of Widnes, Cheshire, who was known as ‘the big fella’.
He was jailed for 32 years earlier this year and today Sohail Qureshi, 64, one of his key accomplices, was sentenced to 25 years behind bars at Manchester Crown Court.
Qureshi worked closely with Timperley man Vazeer, and Ghazanfar Mahmood, 53, of Bolton.
Mahmood, who was born in Pakistan but holds Danish nationality, was convicted of being involved in an organised crime gang (OCG). The former taxi driver took his orders from Qureshi and travelled to Spain and the Netherlands to develop the operation, and he became a director of a front company in the Netherlands.
He was sentenced to three years and nine months.
Vazeer was convicted of the same charges as Qureshi.
He helped set up a front company in the UK and helped Dutch crime boss Barbara Rijnbout – jailed for 18 years earlier this year – open personal and business bank accounts in the UK by using forged documents.
Dutch wiretap evidence showed Vazeer supported and encouraged Rijnbout, 53, of Utrecht, to run the Dutch OCG side. Vazeer was sentenced to 20 years.
The offences were committed between August 2015 and September 2018 during which the OCG smuggled at least 240 consignments of drugs.
The group set up front companies and rented warehouses in the Netherlands and UK to move drugs hidden in deliveries of strong-smelling foodstuff such as onions, garlic and ginger.
As well as the warehouses in Sheffield and Preston, the OCG also rented premises in Leeds, Warrington, Bolton, Wigan and Ormskirk.
In total, more than 246 years of jail time has been given to 12 members of the OCG. Two men who cannot be named for legal reasons await sentencing for their roles along with Ashley Jones, 34, of St Helens, Merseyside. He admitted conspiring to import Class A drugs and will be sentenced at a date to be confirmed.
Two offenders were given suspended sentences and one died before he could be sentenced.
The OCG members were convicted over two trials: one lasting 23 months – a record in England and Wales – and the second lasting nine months.
Richard Harrison, regional head of investigations at the National Crime Agency, said: “These criminals supplied unprecedented amounts of drugs right across the UK.
“And along with that, an incalculable amount of damage to society with the violence, addiction, exploitation and misery that are inseparable from supplying drugs.
“Offenders like these only care about the money to be made.
“They don’t care that they fuel horrendous problems such as children being sucked into dealing drugs through County Lines or innocent members of the public being hurt or even killed in the crossfire of turf wars.
“I commend my officers for the years of dedicated and tenacious work that went into bringing this OCG to justice.”
