Saleem Chaudhri, who smuggled cocaine whose street value was more than £17 million (Rs 177 crore), was jailed by authorities in the UK. The police found the drug hidden in blocks of cheese and bin bags.
He was arrested last year during a raid on an industrial unit in Blackburn. UK broadcaster BBC who first reported the incident said Chaudhri worked with courier Rieadul Mohabath and made more than £70 million (Rs 729 crore) between 2022 and 2023.
The 46-year-old and Mohabath both admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine at Preston Crown Court. Chaudhri was jailed for 27 years and six months while the 28-year-old Mohabath was handed a 16-year sentence.
Officers first apprehended Chaudhri as he was taking “possession of a Toyota Estate from a drugs courier” and driving it to the Old Fire Station in Blackburn, the BBC said.
The broadcaster said that officers then entered his unit and 217 kg of cocaine, estimated to be worth more than £17m inside the unit.
They said some of those drugs were “hidden inside blocks of Gouda cheese” imported from Belgium. Drug packages were also found in black bin bags “ready to be handed to couriers”.
The day he was arrested, Chaudhri planned to hand 67 kg to one courier and 63 kg to another. Mohabath was arrested in July 2023 and police found a “significant amount of cash, a cash counting machine and suspected Class A drugs of varying weights”.
Cops also retrieved a stash of nearly £10,000 in cash (over Rs 10 lakhs) when they raided Chaudhri’s home in Waterside, Blackburn.
Chaudhri was planning to sell more than 2,000 kilos of cocaine for more than £70 million (Rs 729 crore) between September 2022 and May 2023.
“When we arrested Chaudhri, you could see by the look on his face that his world had crumbled. That is reflected by the significant sentence he has received today,” police officer Haydn Sibley was quoted as saying by the BBC.
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