Advertisement

Drug gang jailed thanks to CCTV footage from dealer's house

Top to bottom - Usman Yousuf, Mohammed Majeed, Azaan Tariq.
Bag of cocaine.

Today (Friday 26 May) three men appeared at Manchester Crown Court where they were sentenced following an investigation by Greater Manchester Police Serious Organised Crime Group (SOCG) which uncovered 23 kilos of Cocaine and over £15k cash.

Usman Yousuf (25/05/1992) was sentenced to 12 years in jail after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Mohammed Majeed (25/01/1993) was sentenced to nine years and ten months in jail after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Azaan Tariq (04/08/2002) was sentenced to three years and four months in jail after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Unfortunately for the trio, their movement had been captured by Usman Yousuf’s own CCTV cameras, incriminating them, and giving police an insight into their criminal enterprise.
(Top to bottom) Usman Yousuf, Mohammed Majeed and Azaan Tariq, (MEN Media)

A trio of drug dealers has been put behind bars thanks to footage from the CCTV system at one of their homes.

“Incriminating footage” of Usman Yousuf, Mohammed Majeed and Azaan Tariq gave detectives an insight into their criminal enterprise in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

It shows Yousuf arriving at his home with Majeed and leaving with a large blue holdall which would later be dropped off at a shipping container in Rochdale.

Meanwhile Tariq was recorded “coming and going” from Yousuf’s home with large and heavy carrier bags, police said.

At Manchester Crown Court on Friday, Yousuf, 31, was sentenced to 12 years in jail for his part in the operation.

Read more: Brit sets sail across Atlantic in one-metre long boat in hope of breaking record

Rochdale drug gang caught on own CCTV
Majeed (left) and Yousuf carrying a blue holdall later found in a shipping container. (MEN Media)

Majeed, 30, was given nine years and 10 months and Tariq, 20, was handed a term of three years and four months. The trio, all from Rochdale, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

"Unfortunately for the trio, their movements had been captured by Usman Yousuf's own CCTV cameras, incriminating them, and giving police an insight into their criminal enterprise," Greater Manchester Police said in a statement.

Three days after Yousuf was caught on camera with his big blue holdall on 22 July last year, police swooped in on his home.

Read more: Rishi Sunak's supermarket price cap plan 'won't make a jot of difference', BRC says

Officers found receipts showing large cash deposits and drugs paraphernalia “consistent with a large-scale drug operation,” GMP said.

Inside Yousuf’s car, police found food bags, scales bearing cocaine residue, £15,000 in cash and nine large bags of cocaine.

Watch: How a gang posing as a furniture removal firm smuggled £135m of drugs into UK

A search of his home uncovered more cash hidden away and multiple phones. It was in Yousuf's house that officers were able to seize the CCTV footage.

Phones and sim cards connecting Majeed to the conspiracy were later found at his home, together with more than £500 hidden in a cushion.

The holdall in the shipping container, meanwhile, was found to contain 23 kilograms of cocaine valued at around £700,000.

Read more: Health secretary Steve Barclay admits pledge to build '40 new hospitals' really means five

Days later, a search of Tariq's home led to multiple hidden mobile phones, which contained conversations about their movements and supplying of drugs across Rochdale.

Detective Inspector Roger Smethurst said: "The sentencings come as a result of months of hard work by detectives who launched an investigation as part of GMP's continued crackdown on drug supply in the region which blights our local communities.

"Drugs on the streets can have a huge effect on communities and are often a catalyst for serious crime due to drug disputes, and the sentencings are another step forward in disrupting serious, organised crime and removing dangerous individuals off our streets."