Drug importer who fled to Pakistan jailed

Tuesday, 11 September 2018 07:00

A member of a Bradford-based organised crime group who fled to Pakistan nearly 20 years ago in an attempt to evade justice has been sent to jail.

Mohammed Kaleem Bux, 39, fled the country a week before his trial in 1999 and started a new life in Pakistan where he remained until the start of this year when he handed himself in to police.

He appeared at Bradford Crown Court yesterday (10 September) where he pleaded guilty to importing heroin into the UK between August 1996 and January 1997 and a further charge of failing to surrender to court for his trial.

He was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for conspiracy to import heroin and six months for failing to appear at court. The sentences are to run consecutively.

Detective Inspector Simon Pridgeon, of West Yorkshire Police’s Protective Services Crime department, said: “This was a complex and groundbreaking investigation using an array of covert tactics which was conducted by our colleagues in the 1990s.

“Bux attempted to evade justice by fleeing to Pakistan where he had started a new life. Today justice has caught up to him largely due to the professionalism of the officers who worked on the case in the 1990s, and the detectives who have worked on this case since his return to the UK.

“A large amount of material was generated by the original investigation that spanned four years. Legislation and procedures have changed a lot in the years that followed this investigation. It is a credit to the detectives involved to have obtained Bux’s guilty plea.

“This sentencing sends out a message to anyone involved in any serious criminality in West Yorkshire that it does not matter how long it takes, even if you leave the country, West Yorkshire Police has a long memory, we will continue to pursue you and prosecute you.”

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