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Kurds involved in drug deals in UK
11.11.2005
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'Watch on drug gang led to
£7m haul' By Olwen Dudgeon
HEROIN with a street value of more than £7m was
seized by police after they targeted an organised
crime gang allegedly led by a man living in West
Yorkshire, a jury heard.
National Crime Squad officers were watching Khalid
Malik when he met with contacts from the South to
plan the drugs deal, including over lunch at Harry
Ramsden's in Guiseley, meals at a Bradford
restaurant and drinks at the Queens Hotel in Leeds,
Andrew Lees, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court
yesterday.
They also monitored men who were his agents as they
met the same two Iraqi Kurd contacts in London,
leading to the exchange of drugs on May 12.
Subsequently heroin weighing more than 130kg in
cardboard boxes was seized at a house in
Leytonstone.
Mr Lees said that after Malik's arrest he was found
to have £40,000 in cash inside a floor safe at
Bradford Unique Car Care, in Gibson Street, which he
said he had saved from his car dealing and repair
business.
Police also recovered anti-surveillance devices and
heavy duty body armour from his girlfriend's flat.
Malik, 34 of Ridge Close, Guiseley, Aras Karkuki,
43, of Honeymen Close, Willesden, North London, and
Naveed Butt, 37, of Churchill Terrace, Chingford,
Essex, each deny conspiracy to
supply heroin.
Two other men, Farhad Ibrahim, 44 of Dragon Road,
Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and Khalid Durrani, 37, of
Edison Close, Walthamstowe, London, have already
admitted the charge.
Mr Lees told the jury: "It is the Crown's case Malik
conspired with his co-accused to arrange for the
supply of heroin, which he intended for onward
distribution and sale in West Yorkshire."
Given the large quantity involved that required a
great deal of planning and organisation, he said.
That led to meetings between Malik, who had a
previous conviction for offering to supply heroin,
and his Southern contacts, Karkuki and Ibrahim, both
London-based Iraqi Kurds, with Ibrahim acting as the
interpreter.
The jury were shown a number of film clips of their
meetings including the first face-to-face contact
between Malik, Karkuki and Ibrahim at the Nawab
restaurant in Bradford on September 15 last year.
That night the two men from the South stayed at the
Holiday Inn Hotel at Bramhope with Malik allegedly
footing their £260 bill, settled in cash the next
morning.
The next day before returning to London they joined
Malik for lunch at Harry Ramsden's restaurant after
he had arrived in his black Lamborghini sports car.
Mr Lees said a further meeting took place on January
28, again at the Nawab restaurant.
By the end of April, Durrani entered the picture, he
and Butt allegedly acting as agents for Malik.
Durrani was seen visiting the flat of Malik's
girlfriend, Maria Karpina, in Apperley Court,
Bradford, and had his own key to the property.
On May 1, with final arrangements being made,
another meeting was held between Malik and Karkuki
and Ibrahim, this time in the bar at the Queens
Hotel.
Mr Lees told the jury that on May 11 Durrani and
Butt were being watched in London when contact was
made with Ibrahim and Karkuki, following which a van
was driven to the home of Durrani's mother in
Leytonstone, where it was parked up.
She was abroad but he had the keys to the property
and after his arrest a short time later the house
was searched and 13 boxes recovered containing 77
packages of heroin.
www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk
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