Punjab-origin man jailed in UK for 13 years in drug dealing case
Officers searching his home found cash and class A drugs in powder, rock and block form concealed in various hiding places.
world Updated: Feb 11, 2018 10:09 IST
A Punjab-origin man based in Wolverhampton who acted as a drugs wholesaler to dealers in the West Midlands was jailed on Friday for 13 years following an investigation by Britain’s crime prevention officials.
Daljinder Bassi, 36, used his house on Stafford Road to cut, package and store large quantities of heroin and cocaine before selling it on to dealers in the West Midlands, the officials said. He was arrested in October 2017 as he drove on motorway M6 with three kilos of heroin in his car.
Officers searching his home found cash and class A drugs in powder, rock and block form concealed in various hiding places, including under the floorboards, beneath the insulation in the loft and within the wall cavities.
The cash hidden in the walls was only accessible from the loft using a home-made pulley system, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said, adding that officers seized £737,000 in cash and 22kg of heroin, cocaine and mixing agents.
The total drugs recovered would have had a total estimated street value of £2.5 million. A hydraulic press which investigators believe Bassi used to pack the drugs into blocks, and two ledgers comprised of customer details and their orders were also seized.
After pleading guilty to three counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, Bassi was sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday.
Matt McMillan from the Met Police Organised Crime Partnership, said: “Bassi was a major distributor of class A drugs in the West Midlands. By shutting down his illegal enterprise, not only have we eliminated a key link in the chain between high end traffickers and street level dealers, but a huge amount of cash has been removed from the criminal economy”.