2 Punjab-origin men among 10 jailed in UK for smuggling drugs

The accused used frozen chicken to smuggle drugs. The West Midlands police told the court they seized 400kg of “high-purity” cocaine as well as GBP 1.6 million as investigators dismantled the wholesale supply chain.

A 10-member drug smugglers’ gang involving Indian-origin men, which was apprehended four years ago by the UK police, has got prison sentences ranging between two and 16 years. All of them, who used frozen chicken consignments among their many covers to smuggle drugs, were arrested in July 2020 and later they went on to plead guilty to drug smuggling offences. They were sentenced by Birmingham Crown Court on August 20 this year.

The accused were first arrested in July 2020. Later, they went on to plead guilty to drug smuggling offences. August 20 this year, they were sentenced by Birmingham Crown Court . (HT File)

Among them are Maninder Dosanjh, 39, who has been jailed for 16 years and eight months, and Amandeep Rishi, 42, imprisoned for 11 years and two months for their role in the conspiracy to supply banned drugs and money laundering.

The West Midlands police told the court they seized 400kg of “high-purity” cocaine as well as GBP 1.6 million as investigators dismantled the wholesale supply chain, which saw the 10-strong gang transporting the drugs in pallets of raw chicken.

“This far-reaching investigation covered the importation, exportation and wholesale national supply of cocaine and money laundering,” said detective chief inspector Pete Cooke from the West Midlands police’s regional organised crime unit (ROCU).

Some of the illegal cash was found stashed in vehicle tyres and industrial machinery inside vans disguised as mechanical service vehicles. The police also recovered 225kg of cocaine destined for export to Australia that had been stored at a warehouse in Sutton Coldfield, in the West Midlands region of England.

The gang communicated with each other using the Encrochat platform, an encrypted messaging app that criminals believed couldn’t be accessed by law enforcers. It has since been shut down by investigators as part of a major UK-wide operation.

These messages discussed the logistics, management and delivery of up to a tonne of cocaine and large amounts of criminal cash being collected or delivered in the UK.

Dosanjh and Rishi were the first to be arrested with over 150kg of cocaine hidden in frozen chicken produce when police officers in Birmingham stopped the van they were in coming back from docks in Essex. Others in the gang were arrested after one of the gangsters collected wheels and tyres in the West Midlands before driving to London, where they were passed to another gangster in a residential street. When the tyres were cut open, they were found to contain around GBP 500,000 in cash. On another occasion, just over GBP 1 million cash was recovered from a concealed compartment of an air compressor in another of the gang’s vans stopped by officers.

All of the convicts lived in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall, South Staffordshire and London.