Met officer and five others jailed for organised crime

A FORMER Metropolitan Police officer was among six people jailed for more than 64 years last Thursday (13) by a court for intercepting rival drug gang couriers to seize hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Southwark crown court pronounced the sentence after the gang admitted a range of offences following an investigation by the Met’s directorate of professional standards’ anticorruption command.

Kashif Mahmood, 32, a Met officer based at Central East until his dismissal without notice in November, was jailed for eight years. He had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to acquire criminal property and misconduct in public office.

Among the other gang members, Ioan Gherghel, 34, was jailed for six years; Moshin Khan, 36, (16 years), Shabaz Khan, 33, (14 years), Shazad Khan, 33, (15 years) and Maria Shah, 35, (five years and four months).

The court heard Mahmood used police vehicles and resources to take cash from the couriers in carefully planned operations led by a contact orchestrating events through an encrypted communications network.

Officers identified that Mohsin Khan and his twin brothers Shabaz and Shazad were involved in moving class-A drugs, mainly heroin and cocaine, and the laundering of criminal cash. Shah, Mohsin’s partner, helped to move and conceal proceeds.

Mahmood, a close friend of the Khan brothers, used police vehicles to travel while in uniform to seize money from criminal couriers. He was twice helped by Gherghel who was not a police officer, but pretended to be, the Met Police said.

The conspiracy was orchestrated by a Dubai-based man who used EncroChat, an encrypted communications platform. He communicated with Khan, who was the main point of contact, the Met added.

In July 2019 and January 2020 Mahmood looked up police records to source intelligence about the EncroChat contact. On seven occasions between November 20, 2019, and March 25, 2020, Mahmood booked out a police vehicle from Stoke Newington police station, the court heard.

“He used these vehicles to intercept couriers and seize or attempt to seize up to £450,000 at a time. On one occasion, on March 8, 2020, Mahmood and Gherghel were travelling in a police vehicle to intercept a courier of criminal property in Chingford, E4. They searched his car and took a bag, which it is claimed contained a large amount of cash, and a further £2,000. They did not arrest the man,” the Met Police said.

“Unknown to them, the suspected courier was under surveillance by the Met’s proactive money-laundering team. These officers subsequently stopped Mahmood to investigate why he had searched the car.

“Mahmood said there were concerns of drug dealing in the area and agreed to complete an intelligence report. However, the proactive money laundering team were suspicious and later shared their observations with anti-corruption colleagues.”

On April 28, 2020, Mahmood was arrested at his home in Harlow, and Gherghel in Stratford. A search of Gherghel’s address revealed a Met stab vest and £11,385 in cash.

According to the police, three Rolex watches were recovered. Investigators also discovered more than £40,000 paid into Mahmood or his family’s bank accounts between October 2019 and May 30, 2020.

Despite the arrests of Mahmood and Gherghel, the Khans and Shah continued their activities, and on July 7, police detained them. Evidence seized included £39,525 in cash, more than 20kg of cannabis, paraphernalia for packaging drugs and a box for an encrypted mobile phone. At addresses linked to Shabaz around £101,500 in cash was found, the police said.

A misconduct hearing was held for Mahmood on November 26 last year where all allegations were proven. He was dismissed without notice and placed on the College of Policing’s barred list.

All the defendants were charged and later pleaded guilty.

“Mahmood may have been a police constable in name, but he was nothing more than a criminal who abused his position to look after the interests of organised crime. His motive, we have to assume, was money – he was paid handsomely for his endeavours,” said Bas Javid, deputy assistant commissioner, Directorate of Professionalism.

“There is absolutely no place for any corrupt officer in the Metropolitan Police Service. We have the largest dedicated counter-corruption unit in UK law enforcement,” he added.