Bradford drug dealer who had £3m in heroin hidden in home ordered to pay back £137k in ill-gotten gains

Yusuf Kara, who was jailed for 10 years and four months in December last year for conspiracy to supply drugs and money laundering, has been ordered to pay back the sum in a hearing at Leeds Crown Court.

The 30-year-old of Lidget Green, Bradford, was warned he would serve up to a further 16 months in prison if he failed to pay the money.

The total confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act (PoCA) amounted to £136,907.81 after investigators calculated his recoverable assets from cash, cars and designer clothing.

The ruling will also see Kara forfeit a Ford Focus and a Peugeot 207, which he had used to transport drugs. Kara’s Encrochat phone, which was found in his car and had been used to coordinate his drug trafficking, was also ordered to be destroyed.

Kara was originally arrested in October last year following an investigation carried out by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Officers searched his house discovering 56 packages - each containing a kilo of heroin - with a street value of around £3 million, hidden in bags and a suitcase.

The court found that Kara had benefitted around £1,091,007.74 - meaning he will only pay back around 12 per cent of everything he earned from his crimes.

As part of the same investigation, Imran Khan Ashraf, 31, of no fixed abode but formerly of Bradford, admitted money laundering and was sentenced to 28 months.

The court also found that Ashraf had benefitted from his criminal conduct in the amount of £249,550.15 and that he owned assets totalling £2,669.69.

Ashraf was made subject of a confiscation order in the sum of £2,669.69, and a number of phones found in his possession, including an Encrochat handset, have been destroyed.

NCA Branch Commander Mark Spoors said: “The class A drug trade fuels violence and intimidation in our communities, and Kara was living a lavish lifestyle profiting from this criminality.

“Today’s result shows the full extent of the NCA’s impact; an already imprisoned Class A drug trafficker and money launderer being stripped of his illicit cash and assets.

“We continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to pursue serious and organised criminals and deny them their proceeds of crime.”