‘Meat cargo’ was £60m cannabis

Oldham at centre of smuggling racket
AN address in Oldham was used as a meeting place for drug dealers involved in a £60million smuggling operation.

Huge quantities of cannabis and cannabis resin were shipped into the UK, disguised as cargoes of frozen meat.

The drugs, from Holland, were held at a refrigeration depot in the North-East until collected by a lorry driver who always dressed as a butcher, to back up the deception.

They were brought to Greater Manchester, where blocks of resin and bags of cannabis were divided for sale.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard a five-man, Manchester-based gang was behind the business. Drugs were stored in Hyde, but an address in Crompton Street, Coldhurst — owned by the sister of 29-year old Rizwan Safdar, one of the five - was used to separate vacuum-packed blocks of cannabis.

The gang was caught after police mounted surveillance on dealers in West Yorkshire. Undercover police followed five men from Bradford to Manchester last December, in the hope of identifying their suppliers. They then planned an interception of the next delivery from Holland, a week before Christmas.

The consignment was searched in County Durham and found to contain two tons of cannabis, worth around £7.5m.

The drugs were removed and the packages rewrapped for collection.. POlice then followed the truck to Greater Manchester.

Two of the gang were caught unloading packages on a Manchester trading estate. Prosecutors revealed that 14 consignments had been shipped from Holland — around15 tons of cannabis worth £60million on the streets.

Undercover officers raided the Crompton Street address and found almost 40kg of cannabis worth £337,960.

One of the Bradford buyers was stopped by police on the M67 as he was driving home and was carrying just under 2kg of the drug, worth £85,000.

The man, and four others from West Yorkshire, has already admitted conspiracy to supply drugs.

Before the court are Michael Levy (43), of Ealing Place, Manchester; Ian Thompson (41), of Langdale Court, Smedley Lane, Manchester; Thomas Knox (46), of Manchester Road, Heywood; Rizwan Safdar (29), of Woodham Walk, Bolton; Geno Abela (41), of Stainton Avenue, Manchester; and his brother Tony Abela (52), of Hillside View, Denton. All plead not guilty to conspiracy to supply.

Proceeding.


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