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19 on trial over record 2,500kg drugs haul
SHARJAH - The Sharjah Criminal Court has started hearing on Monday one of the biggest cases of money laundering and drug trading.
The case - known as the Operation Octopus - was unveiled when a unified team of Dubai and Sharjah Police departments, succeeded in arresting 19 suspects who are the members of a gang.
The case took shape in December last year, when the departments concerned received a tip-off about a huge drug trafficking operation involving about 2,500kg of hashish smuggled from Pakistan to Holland. The police authorities followed the lead in coordination with security authorities from many European countries, until the accused were apprehended and referred to the court. The Sharjah Criminal Court looked into the case on Monday and deferred it to September 21 to summon the witnesses and financial experts.
According to the case file — comprising more than 3,000 pages — last December, the authorities concerned received information that some members of a gang who were staying in the UAE, were planning to smuggle a huge quantity of drugs — 2,500kg of hashish — in containers of 90,000 towels from Pakistan to Holland, through some of their assistants in Pakistan.
The smugglers hid the narcotics in towels and transferred them from Faisalabad to Multan in Pakistan where they were repackaged in cartons, then sent to Karachi where a member of the gang received the quantities and put the consignment in a container. The suspect completed the shipment procedures with the Pakistani Customs, and the cargo was supposed to be shipped to a private company belonging to a member of the gang in Holland. The authorities conducted investigations and succeeded in solving the case by apprehending 17 suspects, in addition to two others who were involved in a money laundering case.
Meanwhile, Khaleej Times has obtained the names of the main suspects, including Amir Azam Sheikh Mohammed, a British national of Pakistani origin who lives in Dubai at Emirates Hills and has two car showrooms in Sharjah and Dubai — Exotic Cars, and Mayback International. He is considered the mastermind and the main financer of the operation.
The investigation confirmed that Amir Azam Sheikh Mohammed is the one who was in charge of the operation, starting from purchasing the quantities of hashish to shipping them to Belgium, then delivering the consignment to his partners in Holland. Investigations also disclosed that another Pakistani — one of the major partners in the deal and the main assistant of Amir — was Shahbaz Khan Galat Khan, who lives in a suite in one of the luxury hotels in Sharjah and works as the manager of an IT company in the Sharjah Free Zone.
The second suspect — Shahbaz Khan — is also the owner of Shahbaz Khan for General Trading Company, in addition to Akhdar Hussein Money Exchange Company in Dubai, and the City Hotel in Al Rolla. Shahbaz Khan played a very important role in the deal as he provided the hashish and he was an equal partner in the deal who would receive 50 per cent of the profits. His name featured in various drug trafficking cases, but he was never convicted.
The third suspect, Waseem Rauf Loun Rauf, holds a Pakistani passport and also lives in Sharjah. He has a trading company and his role was confined to supervising the shipping of the cargo from Pakistan to Europe. He was in charge of buying the towels in which the hashish was hidden. He is wanted in seven hashish trafficking cases in Pakistan.
The fourth suspect — Makboul Ahmed Fateh Mohamed — is also a Pakistani living in Sharjah. He owns two companies and is one of the deal’s financers and a partner in the profits. He made a fortune from trading in narcotics. The fifth suspect, Shoudari N. Ahmed, is again a Pakistani living in Sharjah, who owns a car showroom in Abu Shagara. He too was one of the financers and partners in the deal. Investigations revealed that the suspect dealt in selling and buying stolen cars from abroad.
One of the suspects, is an Economics teacher in a private school in Ajman. Mohammed Nadim Arshad, another Pakistani, lives in Ajman and owns a cyber café there. His role in the deal was confined to providing a certain quantity of the towels. The seventh suspect, is Dia’ullah Raja Sardar Muzafar, also a Pakistani. He stays in hotels during his visits to the UAE and owns the license for an airline company in Pakistan under the name of Safe Air. He had made a deal with a South African company to purchase four planes. His role in the deal was coordinating with shipping companies in Pakistan and following up the shipping procedures. According to investigations, he offered bribe to a Pakistani Customs officer to facilitate the passing of the container without inspecting it at Karachi Port.
The eight accused — Abdul Qadeer Baht (Pakistani) — contributed to completing the shipping procedures in coordination with shipping companies in Karachi. He was in charge of receiving the money transferred for the deal, and he was making arrangements to visit the UAE to explore the future prospects for smuggling drugs. The ninth accused — Mohamed Shakour Khan Rand (Pakistani), an officer at Karachi Port — facilitated the clearance of the cargo with the help of other officers for an amount of Dh200,000. He too was intending to visit the UAE for making a deal for future drug smuggling operations.
The tenth accused — Simon Chnidar a Deutsch living in Holland. He is a regular visitor to the UAE where he is partner in a company in Ajman. He provided the company address in Holland where the cargo was shipped and his role was to supervise the delivery of the shipment and the offloading of drugs against a percentage of the profits. The 11th suspect is Tom R D Belgian who lived in a rented villa in Al Barsha in Dubai. His role was to receive the shipment in Belgium with the help of unknown people.
The investigation revealed that he had been earlier sentenced to eight years in jail and he is wanted.
Meanwhile the 12th suspect Mohammed Nadim Ghani a British national of Pakistani origin who lives in Sharjah and has a trading company .According to the investigations, he is an expert in shipping and he was consulted on how to ship the consignment and clear it from customs in return for a percentage of the profits. He has a criminal record especially in smuggling, importing and exporting stolen and expired products.
The 13th suspect Nishan Mohammed Anwar, Pakistani, lives in a flat in Al Baraha area of Dubai and works in a company owned by the third suspect. His role was to send and receive the documents of the freight through the fax of the company and coordinate with the other suspects. The 14th suspect is Saleem Akhtarullah Pakistani who has residency in Japan. He lives in Al Qussais in Dubai and deals in drugs and stolen cars. He is one of the financers of the deal and is aware of all its details.
The 15th suspect, Merza Asad, Pakistani who lives in Al Khan in Sharjah and often visits the UK. He has all the details of the deal and offered consultation on the shipping procedures. The 16th accused Azim Bhatti, British of Pakistani origins he is a partner in the of the third accused in his company. He used to smuggle heroin to the UK and deliver to individuals who deal with the third accused. His role is to make arrangements for smuggling more drugs to Europe. The 17th accused Kredi from Holland he the main buyer of the smuggled Hashish and he was in touch with the 10th and 11th suspects to arrange the delivery of the quantities. The 18th suspect is Silan Kul S. Turkish and the 19th is Ahmed A. y Emirati.
The investigations revealed that charges of participating ion the biggest drug smuggling deal was pressed against 17 suspects, in addition to money laundering charges against the first, second, third, 11th, 12th, 18th and 19th suspects. Meanwhile the investigations of the joint Dubai and Sharjah Police team revealed that the first and third suspects were arranging the deal for the benefit of the Dutch and Belgian suspects (10th and 11th), and that the shipment was going in the name of one of Simon's (10th accused) companies in Holland. Simon is considered one of the biggest drug dealers in Europe and he visited the UAE where he met with a number of suspects in the case. All the meetings were taped, according to the case file.
When the investigation team gathered all the information, the UAE security authorities passed them on to the authorities concerned in Holland and Belgium including the details of the shipment, the consignment number and its route after it left Karachi port on January 3 heading towards Sri Lanka where the cargo was shipped on another vessel to South Hampton Port in Britain and from there to Antwerp Port Belgium to finally reach its destination in Holland.
The coordinated efforts of the security authorities in the UAE and the countries concerned resulted in gathering all required evidence and documents proving the involvement of the suspects. These efforts were crowned with the confiscation of the shipment on January 25 in coordination with the Belgium authorities, which comprised 746 boxes of towels and 51 boxes hashish weighing about 2.5 tons. The Belgium authorities seized the narcotics and left only one kg in the container and installed a monitoring device to track the container.
On January 30, the gang completed the customs clearance for the cargo in Antwerp port and loaded it on a truck which was under the surveillance by Belgian police and before reaching Holland borders, the Belgian police impounded the truck, arrested the driver and the members of the gang in Belgium.
Meanwhile, the public prosecution in the UAE alerted departments concerned such as the UAE central bank to review the accounts of the suspects and their families in addition to the ones who are dealing with them, and monitor their money transfer transactions. As well, the public prosecution obtained records on the assets of the suspects and their accomplices to track the sources of their money and the root of the illegal operations.
Nasser Hashim of Al Kamala Law Firm, the Defence lawyer for the only Emirate involved in the case on charges of money laundering, told the court that his client's name was dragged into the case only because of his legitimate business ties with one of the suspects. He said that Ahmed is a partner in a trade business with the second accused Shahbaz Khan Galat Khan.
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