£493,256 confiscation orders obtained by North East RART

On 20th November 2006, two confiscation orders totalling £493,256 were issued at Teesside Crown Court. The two main offenders were Stockton businessmen Mazhar Ali and Tariq Mahmood, convicted of dealing in heroin and money laundering in October 2005.
 

The court ordered that the defendants pay the confiscation orders or face a further 5 years in jail.

Detail:-

A Cleveland Police operation in December 2003 resulted in the arrests and the seizure of almost £100,000 and one-and-a-quarter kilos of heroin.

Mazhar Ali, 29, and Tariq Mahmood, 38, from Stockton, denied conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and two charges of money laundering but both were found guilty on unanimous verdicts after a trial at Teesside Crown Court and sent to jail for nine years each.

Ali's brother Azhar Ali, 33, also from Stockton, had earlier admitted conspiracy to supply a Class A drug, while their sister, Shanaz Mahmood, 36, and her husband Arshad Mahmood, 40, admitted money laundering. Mazhar Ali and Tariq Mahmood were jointly convicted of concealing £84,130, while Ali was found guilty of concealing £3,300 and Mahmood guilty of concealing £10,000.

Teesside Crown Court was told that the police seized £85,000 and more than a kilo of heroin worth an estimated £123,000 from one of their cars. Police tracked a Vauxhall Vectra driven by Azhar Ali to an area of Sheffield. It pulled up next to a Corsa and police saw a package being transferred. After Ali drove back to Teesside, a package was unloaded and put into the boot of a Nissan Micra, where it was seized by police and found to contain 1.231 kilos of heroin.

Ali's sister, Shanaz Mahmood, and her husband were later seen driving from their home and, when police stopped their car, they found £85,130 in cash in the front footwell. It was later claimed that the money legitimately belonged to her brother and her brother-in-law, Tariq Mahmood, and she said that she had received a phone call asking her to move the money from her home. Tariq Mahmood had a safe in his bedroom holding £10,000 and Mazhar Ali also had a bedroom safe with £3,300 inside.

Azhar Ali, 31, also from Stockton, who pleaded guilty to the drugs conspiracy, was jailed for four years. Arshad Mahmood,40, from Yarm Road, Stockton, who pleaded guilty to money laundering was jailed for a year and his wife Shanaz Mahmood, 36, a Teesside-born mother of five, who also pleaded guilty, was given a two-year community rehabilitation order.