Birmingham Drug Brothers Ordered To Repay £1.3M
27 February 2019, 13:20
Three Birmingham brothers have been ordered to pay back more than £1 million after police in the West Midlands proved they’d funnelled drugs money into family bank accounts.
Sakander Riaz, formerly of Belchers Lane in Bordesley Green, was jailed for 13-and-a-half years in 2016 for his part in a major heroin importation network from Pakistan to the UK – much of which was destined for the streets of Birmingham.
Brothers Asif and Saqib Riaz were also jailed for five and four years, respectively, in March last year for money laundering after detectives found they’d passed crime profits through their bank accounts.
Some of the drugs money was used to pay off the mortgage and make significant renovation improvements to the family home and buy luxury cars fitted with personalised number plates.
Investigators from the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) also found images on Saqib Riaz’s phone showing an overseas villa under construction, while £80,000 in cash was uncovered during a search of the family home.
They must repay £400,000 in the next three months or Sakander, Asif and Saqib will spend an extra 36, 18 and four months, respectively, behind bars.
The rest of the POCA debt will hang over them for life and police can seize any cash or assets they accrue in the future.
