Friday, February 24, 2017

Family of a drug dealer who was part of a £180MILLION money laundering gang

  • Alam Zeb Khan's family must give up homes in Birmingham and Northern Ireland
  • Khan part of gang jailed for 140 years for £180m drug money laundering scam
  • High Court ruled relatives must give up properties funded by criminal activities
Alam Zeb Khan was  jailed for  laundering more than £180 million for drugs traffickers
Alam Zeb Khan was  jailed for laundering more than £180 million for drugs traffickers
The family of a drug dealer jailed as part of a £180 million drugs money laundering scam have lost their homes because of his crimes.
Alam Zeb Khan was one of 32 men in Birmingham jailed for a total of 140 years in 2014 for laundering more than £180 million for drugs traffickers. 
Now the High Court has ruled Khan's relatives must hand their properties over to the National Crime Agency, because they were bought with the proceeds from his criminal activities. 
The court heard how criminally tainted money was used to build a property portfolio in the names of Khan's brother Aurang Khan, sister-in-law Shakar Begum, and wife Jamila Shabnam. 
Two of the properties are in Birmingham, with two more in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland.
In 2014 Khan, 38, was sentenced to seven years for drugs offences and another five years concurrent for Proceeds Of Crime Act offences June 2013.
Khan, of Birmingham, previously served sentences starting in 2000 for heroin smuggling, in 2012 for a cocaine supply plot and in 2013 for money laundering.
Following his most recent conviction, the National Crime Agency (NCA) went after his family's assets.
The £180m scam was described in court in 2014 as 'one of the most significant money laundering networks seen in the UK.'

According to the Birmingham Mail, Mrs Justice O'Farrell said his family's properties were 'recoverable' by the NCA.

The judge added: 'The properties have been acquired, held and transferred by various family members without any identifiable source of income.

'The only plausible explanation for acquisition of the properties and the convoluted way in which the defendants have dealt with the properties, is that the funds used are proceeds of crime, namely drug dealing, money laundering, mortgage fraud and tax evasion.'

However the family denied they were part of a wider criminal network associated with Khan. 
They also said the property transactions were part of the way business is conducted between members of an Anglo-Pakistani family.

NCA video: Drugs cash handover by £180m money laundering gang
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