Latest news with #criminalproperty
BBC News
03-07-2025
- BBC News
Halifax shopkeeper jailed over drug offences and loans
A shopkeeper has been jailed for 13 years for drug offences and possession of criminal Mamaniyat's shop in Halifax was raided in August 2020 by police and Trading Standards officers, who found drugs, cash, third-party bank cards and ID documents. Mamaniyat, 42, of Hyde Park in Leeds, was convicted of a host of charges at trial before being sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday. His co-accused, 32-year-old Sultan Ali and 37-year-old Emma Holten, were also jailed. West Yorkshire Police said that, after they first visited Immy G's Off-Licence on George Street in Halifax, Mamaniyat was arrested before being released under investigation. Six months later, in February 2021, the shop was searched again and further drugs and ID documents were seized. Mamaniyat was found guilty of offences including possession with intent to supply drugs such as cocaine, heroin and cannabis, unregulated money lending and possession of criminal property, which related to cash that was determined to be the proceeds of of Blackwall in Halifax, was jailed for six years after admitting being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs and possession with intent to supply Class A drugs. Holten, of Meadowbank in Dewsbury, was jailed for three years and two months after pleading guilty to being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
02-07-2025
- BBC News
Encrochat: Newtownabbey cocaine dealer jailed for eight years
A drug dealer who used the encrypted communications platform EncroChat to smuggle large quantities of cocaine into Northern Ireland has been jailed for eight Patton, 40, from Dorchester Avenue in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, admitted offences, including conspiring to possess cocaine, fraudulently importing the drug and having cocaine with intent to supply also admitted a charge of possessing criminal property, namely £250,000 in at Londonderry Crown Court on Wednesday, a judge said Patton had been operating on a "commercial scale". Judge Neil Rafferty added: "The defendant in this case was centrally involved in the organisation, supervision and control of the importation of significant commercial quantities of cocaine."The court in Derry was told he had committed the offences on dates March and April judge said the Encrochat mobile network was advertised as a highly-encrypted and secure platform, providing a secure means of communication between individuals using the and Dutch police penetrated the Encrochat network and shared with international police forces in 2020.A number of cases are currently being progressed through the year, a self-confessed drug dealer from County Antrim was one of the first to be sentenced in Northern Ireland for offences linked with EncroChat. 'Significant number of people worldwide' Judge Rafferty added: "French police gained access to the network and thereby access to the communications between a very significant number of people worldwide. "Thereafter, the information captured was geolocated and provided to law enforcement bodies."The judge said that, in the UK, the National Crime Agency had been the central agency which received the material. "Each Encrochat user had a different username," he said."In this case the username attributed to the defendant is 'massive-movers'." Patton is currently serving a a 32-month, handed down in March last year at Belfast Crown Court, after he admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply. 'Buy a cash counting machine' Patton, the court was told, had contacts in Panama, Columbia, Spain, the Netherlands, Ecuador and message exchanged between Patton and another Encrochat user referred to the delivery of fifteen bits or tops of cocaine at £45,000 exchange also referred to the bits and tops being collected at junction 17, M1 in the Dundalk area in the Republic of another exchange a user told Patton that he should buy a cash-counting machine. Judge Rafferty said a pre-sentence report compiled by a probation officer stated that Patton "has struggled to come to terms" with the harm his offending has caused to Rafferty said the messages showed Patton "fulfilled a command and control capacity to move multi-kilo consignments of cocaine."I am satisfied that in this case the defendant's use of the Encrochat network was to facilitate and conceal commercial scale drugs criminality."
