Sunday, July 10, 2016

Immigrant cocaine baron who used human rights laws to avoid deportation TWICE begins fourth jail term after he is caught dealing cocaine worth £180,000

  • Mahmoud Jaber was peddling heroin and crack cocaine in Lancashire
  • The 31-year-old funding a lavish lifestyle but served three jail terms
  • Palestinian-born Jaber used Article 8 rights to stop deportation in 2006
Immigrant drug baron: Mahmoud Jaber, pictured, peddled heroin and crack cocaine in Lancashire
Immigrant drug baron: Mahmoud Jaber, pictured, peddled heroin and crack cocaine in Lancashire
An immigrant cocaine baron is starting his fourth prison sentence today for filling Britain's streets with heroin and crack cocaine after exploiting human rights laws to TWICE avoid being deported.

Mahmoud Jaber, 31, has been peddling heroin and crack cocaine across Lancashire to fund his lavish lifestyle and has nine separate drug convictions over 13 years.

But despite being told as far back as 2006 he would be deported back to his native Palestine, Jaber - whose father lives in the UK - used Article Eight of the Human Rights Act to successfully appeal the orders.

Once when convicted of a drug trafficking offence he argued he was 'emotionally scarred into drug taking' by his experiences after being born in a Palestinian West Bank refugee camp

In 2014 an immigration tribunal finally ordered him to be booted out of Britain but his Israeli passport had expired and they refused to accept him, leaving him effectively stateless.

This week he was jailed for 11 years after Preston Crown Court heard he dealt a kilo and a half a kilo of cocaine with a street value of up to £180,000.

Jaber, of Accrington, Lancs, was sentenced for his part in a 10-man conspiracy to supply drugs and launder £50,000 in cash across Lancashire, Manchester and Leicester.

The drugs were recovered when officers stopped a vehicle driven by gang courier Wasim Akthar heading down the M65 motorway in March last year. 

While the other nine all pleaded guilty, Jaber was only convicted at a retrial after the original jury could not agree on a verdict.

He and five others were jailed for a total for a total of 40 years on Thursday.

All 10 gang members were arrested by Operation Hombre in July 2015.

Officers seized around a kilo of heroin and a kilo of cocaine, with a street value of £180,000, and impounded £50,000 in cash, the court was told.

Jaber - whose father lives in the UK - has already served three previous jail sentences, two for drug dealing and one for money laundering.

His first heroin and crack cocaine dealing conviction was way back in 2003.

MAHMOUD JABER'S CONVICTIONS AND TIMETABLE OF APPEAL

  • February 5, 2003: Convicted at Hyndburn Magistrates' Court of resisting police and using a vehicle with no test certificate. Fined £100 with £55 costs.
  • May 1, 2003: Convicted at Hyndburn Magistrates' Court of possessing Class A controlled drugs. Fined £100 with costs of £100.
  • March 24, 2004: Convicted at Hyndburn Magistrates' Court of possession of Class B controlled drugs. Fined £100 and costs of £65.
  • September 16, 2004: Convicted at Burnley Crown Court of possessing crack and heroin. Jailed for four years.
  • April 26, 2006: Jaber notified of his liability to deportation. Notice served May 11, 2007.
  • May 17, 2007: Jaber lodges appeal against deportation and wins on September 5 that year.
  • December 17, 2008: Convicted at Blackburn Magistrates' Court of possessing cannabis. Conditionally discharged for twelve months and pay costs of £360.
  • December 19, 2008: Convicted at Blackburn Magistrates' Court of possessing cocaine and breach of conditional discharge. Given a community order with a curfew requirement and four weeks electronic tagging and costs of £60.
  • November 19, 2010: Convicted at Burnley Crown Court of three counts of possession heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply and being concerned in producing crack. Jailed for six years.
  • January 17, 2011: Jaber warned he would be deported but appeals under Human Rights Act.
  • January 14, 2013: Convicted at Preston Crown Court of money laundering and jailed for 21 months' imprisonment consecutive to six years.
  • October 13, 2013: Jaber appeals deportation before immigration tribunal at Bradford Magistrates' Court but loses.
  • March 6, 2014: Jaber appeals panel's decision at Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber).
  • April 3, 2014: Jaber fails and is ordered to be deported. But his Israeli passport has expired and they refuse to take him.
  • July 7, 2016: Jaber is jailed for 11 years for drug dealing and money laundering
But although he was told he would be deported in 2006, Palestinian-born Jaber used Article Eight of the Human Rights Act to successfully appeal the order, arguing he had a 'right to family life.'

Yet he was then convicted of further drug trafficking offences - claiming he was 'emotionally scarred into drug taking' by his experiences after being born in a refugee camp in the Palestinian West Bank.

In 2011 Jaber was warned he faced deportation yet in 2012 but he again claimed it would result in a 'breach of his human rights.'

While his appeal was in the pipeline, in 2013 he was convicted of money laundering and jailed for an extra 21 months after using drugs money to buy an Audi Quattro S5 for £44,000.

Later that year he was ordered to pay back £37,147.06 as proceeds of crime.

The deportation appeal came to a tribunal in Bradford, West Yorkshire, on October last year an immigration panel ordered he be deported saying removal would 'not be disproportionate.'

The panel said his length of time in the UK was 'outweighed by the public interest in keeping society safe from a perennial offender'.

But Jaber appealed to the Upper Immigration Tribunal in Manchester and used Human Rights laws to argue he would be at 'risk of harm' if he was returned to Palestine.

His lawyer Carla Rawlinson claimed Jaber's safety could be in jeopardy because his uncle had been killed by Israeli forces during the first intifada uprising in 1989.

She said Jaber would have to pass through an Israeli checkpoint and the checkpoints into Palestine are controlled by the occupying Israeli forces.

She claimed at best, he would be turned away by the Israelis and at worst he would be at risk of harm because of his 'history' and that of his uncle.

But rejecting the appeal on April 3, Judge Richard Chalkley said: 'I am satisfied, given this appellant's appalling history, that the appeal fails.

'I find that there are no errs of law in this determination, which I uphold.'

That final deportation ruling ended a series legal battles and appeals, which cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds in legal fees.

But Home Office attempts to actually deport Jaber back to Palestine were frustrated by the lapse of his Israeli passport.

Also a sticking point was the Israeli government's refusal to issue the replacement passport needed for him to be returned to their territory.

This made Jaber, who had been in the UK since 1998 after his parents came here, effectively stateless - and the Home Office therefore helpless to boot him out.

Detective Sergeant Mark Lee, from Lancashire Police's Serious Organised Crime Unit, said: 'We have dismantled a significant drugs network.

'We have taken large quantities of cocaine and heroin off our streets and ensured that those involved in the conspiracy have been brought to justice..'

Khan, 40, from Preston, Lancashire, was jailed for 13 years while Akhtar, 44, also from Preston, was jailed for six years and four months.


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