Gang hid drugs in boxes of dog treats
FOUR members of a brazen drug dealing gang - including a Heald Green man - have been jailed after they were caught smuggling heroin worth £275,000 hidden inside boxes of dog treats and washing powder.
One crook even took a picture of himself wearing a balaclava and joked ‘for what I’m about to do I could get like 35!’ before embarking on his last deal. Another posed on a gold throne.
But police swooped and found the drugs as they were driving them north to Glasgow.
The Manchester gang’s huge operation began to unravel when officers found one of their customers, who had travelled to Cheetham Hill from Northampton, with a quarter of a kilo of cocaine on July 25, last year.
It prompted a detailed police investigation which established how Mohammed Jabbar, 28 and Mohammed Rafique, 40, had supplied the drugs.
It led officers to uncover the scale of the racket, other members of their gang and a picture of arrogant Jabbar sitting on a gold throne.
They established that the duo met their Glasgow contact, Jeremy Curran, 34, in Cheetham Hill last August.
The next day police swooped as Jabbar, Rafique and a fourth member of the gang, Jonathan Clorley, 25, drove their stash of drugs north from Manchester towards Glasgow.
In their car were two boxes of dog treats and one of washing powder stuffed with 2.5 kilos of heroin.
When their phones were examined, police were stunned to discover the gang had been using military encrypted mobiles.
Messages sent between the phones revealed the scale and reach of their operation - as well as their arrogance. The messages revealed Jabbar had spoken with a colleague in the Middle East, detailing the supply of heroin to Curran. Jabbar boasted about having £150,000 worth of drugs.
Officers found a picture of Curran wearing a balaclava, in which he appeared to joke about the scam and possible sentence if he was caught. Under his picture is written: “For what I’m about to do I could get like 35! Pray to God I get away!”
After searching Clorley’s address, police discovered a ‘significant amount of powdered caffeine’ which is used as a cutting agent in drug deals.
The four men were jailed after they pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin at Manchester Crown Court.
Mohammed Jabbar, of Oldham, was sentenced to 15 years on Monday, September 4. Jeremy Curran, of Glasgow, was handed a 14-and-a-half year sentence. Mohammed Rafique, of Cheetham Hill, was jailed for 12 years.
Jonathan Clorley, of Outwood Road, Heald Green, was handed a seven-year prison sentence.
After the hearing, Inspector Lee Griffin, of GMP’s Serious Crime Division, said: “Today’s sentence should be a message to others out there who continue to go against the law and supply drugs, that one day you will be brought to justice.”