A West Midlands gang of drug smugglers, who used a fleet of vans with hidden compartments to ferry millions of pounds worth of cocaine and illegal cash around the country, have been jailed for a total of more than 80 years.

Police seized 400kg of the high-purity drug as well as £1.6m in cash

as investigators dismantled the wholesale supply chain, which saw the 10-strong gang transporting the drugs in pallets of raw chicken.

Some of the illegal cash recovered by West Midlands ROCU was found stashed in vehicle tyres and in industrial machinery inside vans disguised as mechanical service vehicles.

Police also recovered 225kg of cocaine destined for export to Australia which had been stored at a warehouse in Sutton Coldfield.

The gang communicated with each other using the Encrochat platform, an encrypted messaging app which criminals believed couldn’t be accessed by law enforcers, but which was shut down as part of a huge UK-wide operation.

These messages discussed the logistics, management and delivery of up to a tonne of cocaine and large amounts of criminal cash, believed to be over £10m, being collected or delivered nationally.

Police arrested two of the men, Maninder Dosanjh and Amandeep Rishi, and seized over 150kg of cocaine, hidden in frozen chicken produce, when officers in Birmingham stopped the van they were in coming back from docks in Essex.

Others in the gang, were arrested after Mohammed Usman collected wheels and tyres in the West Midlands before driving to London where they were passed to Sayed Hasheman in a residential street. When the tyres were cut open they were found to contain just short of £500,000 in cash.

On another occasion just over £1 million cash was recovered from a concealed compartment of an air compressor in another of the gang’s vans which was stopped by officers.

Within a 10-day period in July 2020 the 10 men, who lived in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall, South Staffordshire and London, were arrested.

Police said:

Our case against them proved so strong that they pleaded guilty to the offences between 30, March 2020 and 13, August 2020, and on Wednesday (20 Aug) they were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court.

Dosanjh, aged 39, was jailed for over 16 years and Rishi, 42, for over 11 years for their leading role in conspiring to supply class A drugs and money laundering.

Also jailed for between seven and nine years, for their significant roles were Usman, 29, Rizwan Ali, 34 and Kamran Hussain, 34.

Peter Masih, 44, Mandeep Singh, 42, Mithab Hussain who played lesser roles were jailed for between seven and eight years, while Ashtiaq Ahmed, 45 and Hashemyan got over two years for money laundering.

Det Chf Insp Pete Cooke, from West Midlands ROCU, said: “This far-reaching investigation covered the importation, exportation and wholesale national supply of cocaine and money laundering.

“We were able to expose the gangs’ activities which were both sophisticated and on a commercial scale, with them using a network of highly trusted individuals and a fleet of vehicles with hidden compartments.

“We believe they were responsible for importing hundreds of kilos of cocaine, estimated to be over a tonne resulting in them making huge sums of cash, thought to be over £10m.

“But all this enterprise was illegal and was putting large quantities of drugs, which we know destroy many lives and blight many communities, on to streets both here in the UK and overseas.

“Our teams were able to trace the activity, identify the criminals and ultimately put them behind bars with considerable jail terms.”

For conspiracy to supply class A drugs, money laundering and conspiracy to fraudulently evade the prohibition on the exportation of Class A drugs:
Maninder Dosanjh, 39 of of Bramwell Drive, Cheslyn Hay, Staffordshire – jailed for 16 years 8 months
Amandeep Rishi, 42, of Alexander Gardens, Perry Barr, Birmingham – 11 years and two months
Mohammad Usman, 29, of Birch Street, Oldbury – nine years and eight months
Rizwan Ali, 34, of Basons Lane, Sandwell – nine years and six months
Kamran Hussain, 34 of High Street, Harborne, Birmingham – nine years and two months

For conspiracy to supply Class A Drugs and money laundering:
Peter Masih, 44 of Laurel Lane, Halesowen – eight years
Mandeep Singh, 42 of Bhylls Lane, Wolverhampton – seven years and two months
Mithab Hussain, 31, of Sedgeley Road East, Sandwell – seven years and two months

For money laundering:
Ashtiaq Ahmed, 45, of Hawes Road, Walsall – two years and seven months
Sayeed Hashemyan, 38, of Fernhead Road, Maida Vale, London – two years and three months