Bradford man with £280k of heroin and pistol at home jailed for eight years

Rameez Anjum, 28, of Cross Road, Bradford, was also found to have £280,000 of heroin and a converted starter pistol stashed in his own house in the city.

He had pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm in February, but faced trial for conspiring to supply class A drugs.

Yesterday, he pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court to conspiracy to supply heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine.

He was sentenced to eight years and two months in prison, to run concurrently with the five-year sentence he received in February for the firearms offence.

Anjum's co-conspirators, Mohammed Abbas Azeem, 31, of Cross Road, Bradford, and Shaun Kellett, 42, of no fixed abode, were sentenced to 14 years and five years respectively in February for conspiring to supply class A drugs.

The three were arrested in August 2016 by officers from the National Crime Agency’s Armed Operations Unit and West Yorkshire Police.

Officers had been watching an apartment rented by Anjum in Bradford city centre and had seen Azeem and Anjum visit throughout the day.

Investigators arrested Azeem on suspicion of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs as he left the apartment in his car. They recovered a number of mobile phones and found a set of keys for the apartment in his pocket.

Using the keys, officers went into the flat and found Kellett hoovering, with the taps in the bathroom running.

Officers suspected he had been flushing drugs away and hoovering up evidence and arrested him on suspicion of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs.

When they searched the two-bedroom apartment, officers found a food blender that had been used to mix drugs with cutting agents and found traces of heroin and cocaine in the hoover. They also found drug paraphernalia, including clear plastic bags, scales, masks and heat sealers.

Analysis confirmed they were all contaminated with heroin.

Officers estimate that hundreds of kilos of class A drugs had potentially been cut and distributed from the apartment.

Anjum was arrested later that evening. When his house was searched, 3.5 kilos of heroin - with a potential street value of £280,000 - was recovered, along with a .38 starter pistol, which had been converted to fire live rounds, and six rounds of ammunition hidden under a mattress.

Angela McKenna, of the NCA's Armed Operations Unit, said: "We believe this investigation has significantly disrupted the activities of a well-organised crime group who were responsible for distributing large quantities of class A drugs across West Yorkshire.

“These individuals were involved in serious criminality and given the fact a firearm and ammunition were recovered, they were clearly a danger to the public. We will continue to work with our colleagues from West Yorkshire Police to tackle the violent nature of those involved in this level of criminality.”