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LONDON, 17th November (PTI) — The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has ordered the bust of a drug smuggling ring led by the chief executive of an Indian pharmaceutical company to hand over £2 million following an in-depth investigation into the proceeds of crime.
Jacob Sporon-Fiedler, the 38-year-old chief executive of India-based Alpha Pharma, was directly linked to the illegal importation when he worked with a network of British repairmen including Gurjaipal Dhillon, 65.
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In 2019, both men, along with Alexander MacGregor and Nathan Selcon, were convicted of criminal activity and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 17 months to six years.
On Thursday, a British court ruled that Dhillon should pay £167,000 or face an additional five years in prison. Jakob Spollen-Fiedler, the ringleader, has been ordered by the court to hand over more than £700,000 and the confiscation order against Selcon means he must pay £3,300.
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The largest single confiscation order was handed to McGregor at the Old Bailey Court in London on Wednesday, when he was ordered to pay £1.16 million within three months or face an additional seven years in prison while remaining liable for the money .
Assets identified by the NCA as belonging to MacGregor include bank accounts and stock portfolios, a Porsche 911 GT3 sports car, a Ferrari 458, a Mercedes G Wagon, two Beretta shotguns, and several high-value Rolexes and Audemars Piguets watch.
Rob Burgess, NCA Regional Head of Investigations, said: “These individuals were part of an organized criminal syndicate involved in a multi-million pound global enterprise to manufacture and supply prohibited anabolic steroids.”
“The confiscation orders obtained in this case to date are the culmination of years of hard work by NCA investigators. It demonstrates our determination to track down criminal profits and prevent organized criminals from profiting from criminal activity,” he said.
The NCA began investigating the group in 2014 after they initially seized a shipment of steroids bound for Belfast, Northern Ireland. Threads of evidence traced back to Sporon-Fiedler, who worked with a UK-based middleman responsible for arranging the shipment of dozens of unlicensed drugs from India to Europe for distribution.
The illegally imported drugs, manufactured by Alpha Pharma in India, were shipped to the UK to be distributed by co-conspirators who would sell them on the black market to bodybuilders and fitness fanatics.
The NCA’s investigation found that Gurjaipal Dhillon, from Southol, west London, acted as an intermediary for Sporon-Fiedler, helping him with the imports, as it found shipments linked to the group totaled about 42 tonnes. After their convictions, NCA financial investigators began working to identify assets linked to the gang that could be seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), which ended this week.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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