£500,000 drugs gang must pay back £1,000

NAELA KHALID

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THREE drug dealers who imported £500,000 of heroin on to the streets of Oldham have been ordered to pay back £1,000.

The gang was handed long jail sentences in May for smuggling 5.5kilos of the narcotic from Afghanistan by hiding it in tiny tubes stitched into rugs.

But in a proceeds-of-crime hearing at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court, a judge ordered Moshin Khan to hand over £1,000 and Janhangeer Ali and Naela Khalid just £1 each — despite them making an estimated £60,000 from the crime.

Khan (30) of Sharpe Street, Collyhurst, was said to have made £31,750 but police found cash and assets worth only £1,000.

Ali (29) of Waterloo Street, Glodwick, was adjudged to have made £30,000, and Khalid (27) of Alston Gardens, Burnage, £450. But police said they had no assets to take.

The trio, all originally from Glodwick, face an extra prison sentence if they don’t pay up.

The nominal £1 fine is a technical move which allows police to seize any other assets in the future up to the value of the benefit figure set by the court.

Khan is serving a 12-year jail sentence for drugs offences and dangerous driving. Ali is serving 10 years and Khalid was sentenced to six years for drug offences.

Det Chf Insp Dominic Scally said the trio continued to owe money, adding: “When they come out of prison, should they ever get property or assets in the future, we can seek to take them.”