Captured and jailed! On-the-run Telford drugs baron behind bars after peddling cocaine from home he shared with his kids
A drugs baron who has been on the run after peddling high purity cocaine from the home he shared with his kids has been captured and jailed.
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The law has finally caught up with Mohammed Ramzan, who was sentenced in March this year for his role in leading a gang supplying class A drugs in Telford.
He, as well as the rest of the group including his wife Michelle Ramzan, were sentenced earlier this year to a combined 46 years behind bars for their roles in running the "Harry" drugs line, supplying cocaine and heroin in Telford from Berkshire and Buckinghamshire between 2016 and 2019.
However, Mohammed Ramzan had absconded before the hearing took place, believed to be in Pakistan.
Now the 48-year-old has been caught and is behind bars to start serving his own 16-year prison term, West Mercia Police has confirmed.
Detective Sergeant Stephen Dakin said: “Ramzan was the head of an organised crime group, who had direct control of others involved in the supply of class A drugs in and around Telford.
“Despite him fleeing the country and attempting to evade justice, we have not stopped our efforts to make sure he was put before the court to serve the sentence handed to him.
“This should send a strong message that we will not stop in our pursuit to target county lines drug dealers disrupting our communities.”
Ramzan’s sentence follows a cross-border investigation by West Mercia’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), which brought down the gang organising the supply and distribution of drugs in Telford.
Shrewsbury Crown Court heard during the sentencing how Ramzan peddled drugs from the family home in Arleston Avenue, Telford, and that his wife was complicit, despite their own children living there.
Ramzan’s fellow ringleader, Umair Mehdi, is also at large and understood to be in Pakistan.
On one occasion, as police busted the group, three kilos of cocaine worth roughly £300,000 was seized.
More than £95,000 was laundered by members of the group, with jewellery and cars bought and sold to try and legitimise why they had huge amounts of cash.
Burner phones were seized, including one which had more than 20,000 calls and messages recorded on it. Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu told the court that if each interaction resulted in a £10 street deal, 2.058kg of Class A drugs would have been sold for £205,820.
Judge Peter Barrie told the court how Mohammed Ramzan and Umair Medhi were the main two people who ran the lines in Telford, with Haroon Rehman - who is serving a jail term having previously been convicted of drug dealing - as the main source of the supply from the south of England.
Ramzan has four previous convictions for six offences including possession of an imitation firearm to cause fear of violence, and robbery.
He was found guilty in his absence of two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, entering or becoming concerned in a money laundering arrangement, two counts of converting criminal property and one count of dangerous driving after speeding away from police in Telford.
Judge Peter Barrie said at the sentencing back in March: "He played a leading role. He was running his branch of the main conspiracy. He was not so close to Haroon Rehman and the source of supply as Umair Mehdi, but they (Ramzan and Mehdi) were partners in running the conspiracy together. He (Ramzan) was the organising mind of the conspiracy, but he also dealt directly to customers.”
Michelle Ramzan, who was sentenced in July, was handed a two-year prison term, suspended for two years.
She was sent to the Willowdene rehabilitation centre in Bridgnorth for two months, and on her release ordered to do 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days and was made subject of a 12-week night time curfew between 8pm and 6am.
Other members of the gang were sentenced in March.
A proceeds of crime hearing will also take place in the future to try and recoup some of the group's ill-gotten gains.