Undercover cops watched as a major figure in Paul Green’s gang handed Imran Khaliq a bag containing dirty cash
Imran Khaliq(Image: M.E.N.)
A man was caught red-handed minding £21,000 of dirty cash for a drug gang behind a £7bn racket to import cocaine, heroin and cannabis into the country.
Officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) watched as a major figure in the outfit handed Imran Khaliq a bag containing £21,385 in a car park of McDonald’s in Trafford Park in 2016. When cops swooped, they found the money in Khaliq’s Mercedes.
Today (Wednesday, September 10) – almost a decade on and after the gang’s bosses were handed long jail sentences last year – Khaliq, 46, from Whalley Range, south Manchester, appeared in court.
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He was shown mercy by a judge who heard about his deteriorating health. Khaliq was seen by NCA officers being handed the bag of drugs money by Steven Martin, the gang’s Bolton-based money man, on June 14, 2016, prosecutor Alex Langhorn told Manchester Crown Court.
When officers from Greater Manchester Police swooped to make arrests, Khaliq appeared ‘wide-eyed’ and denied knowing about the £21,385 in English and Scottish bank notes – or the Nokia handset – inside the bag, the court heard.
“It’s nothing to do with me,” he said. But Khaliq, who has 13 previous convictions, including for perverting the course of justice and driving while disqualified, later admitted possessing criminal property.
Paul Green is arrested by police(Image: National Crime Agency)
But his last previous conviction was more than 10 years ago and Khaliq had been on bail for almost a decade awaiting his sentence, his barrister David Bentley told the court. During the wait for his case, Khaliq’s health had suffered a ‘significant deterioration’, Mr Bentley added.
Khaliq was excused from appearing in the dock and instead was allowed to remain seated in his wheelchair at the rear of the court as Judge Paul Lawton sentenced him.
Judge Lawton said the cash was ‘undoubtedly the result of drug trafficking’ linked to his co-accused including Steven Martin, who had ‘had featured in a substantial drugs trial – one of the most substantial heard in this country’.
Judge Lawton said he had ‘thought with some care about how to approach this sentencing exercise’ as it was ‘almost a decade on’ and the defendant had been restricted by his bail conditions during that time.
The judge added that ‘tragically’ the defendant had suffered bereavements; a family ‘breakdown’; and ill-health during his wait for justice. He said he also did not want the defendant to be a ‘burden’ to the probation service.
“In all the circumstances the justice in this case, exceptionally, can be met by the imposition of a conditional discharge for twelve months,” Judge Lawton said.
Paul Green(Image: NCA)
Khaliq, of Manley Road in Whalley Range, showed no reaction as he was sentenced after he admitted possessing criminal property. The sentence means no action will be taken against Khaliq for his crime if he remains out of trouble for the next year.
Last year, eight members of the gang were jailed – including Steven Martin, 52, of Chorley Old Road in Bolton, who was jailed for 28 years after he was found guilty of two counts of conspiring to import class A drugs and two counts of conspiring to import class B drugs.
He was said to be the right-hand-man of the gang’s leader Paul Green, dubbed ‘The Big Fella’. Green’s gang imported cocaine, heroin and cannabis worth up to £7bn hidden in fruit and vegetables in vans driven from mainland Europe. The shipments were made using bogus companies, and innocent haulage companies would unwittingly transport the narcotics.
Green, 59, from Widnes in Cheshire, was jailed for 32 years after being found guilty of three counts of conspiring to import class A drugs, and four counts of conspiring to import class B drugs.
After they were jailed last year, 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.”