International drug trafficker from Yorkshire jailed for life after torturing and murdering his own uncle

Tahir Syed was on trial for five weeks at Leeds Crown Court earlier and was sentenced to life with a minimum of 34 years at the same court on Friday (Jun 13).

He was found guilty of murder, conspiracy to import heroin, conspiracy to supply heroin, conspiracy to import cocaine, conspiracy to supply cocaine, conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to possess criminal property.

He was arrested in Turkey in November 2021 after a worldwide manhunt and after fighting extradition for two years was eventually sent to court.

After believing his uncle Ashgar Badshah, who was a bus driver and aged 39 at the time, had stolen money from him, Syed returned to Yorkshire after he fled the country and arranged for a lie detector test to be taken.

Once Syed was told his uncle had failed the lie detector test, he hatched a plan to kidnap and interrogate him with the support of his accomplice Qaisar Shah, 40.

Asghar Badshah was kidnapped by Syed, Shah and three men from Surrey on November 29, 2019 and taken to a disused vault inside a former branch of Yorkshire Bank.

Once there he was tortured through the night as Syed attempted to extract information about the missing money. Asghar Badshah died as a result of the prolonged attack at the hands of his nephew and Shah.

A post-mortem examination found he was struck with a blunt object at least 48 times on his head, neck, torso, and all four limbs.

Asghar Badshah was reported missing by his family and a sustained West Yorkshire Police search led to the discovery of his body on 29 December 2019 – a month after his kidnapping.

His body was found wrapped in a cloth and hidden on a shelving unit inside the vault. A false wall had also been built on the staircase leading down to the vault in a bid to prevent the body being discovered.

Syed, 42, of Bradofrd, and his organised crime group shipped tonnes of cocaine and heroin into the country hidden in containers of frozen chicken between 2016 and 2021.

Each time the drugs would be delivered from the Netherlands to a store in Bradford rented by Syed.

The chicken was used for the sole purpose of covering the drug imports. It would be disposed of and, on one occasion, abandoned entirely in a store used by the organised crime group.

He fled the country as he was being investigated by detectives from the National Crime Agency.

In September 2019, his right-hand man Yusuf Kara, 36, was observed moving heavy bags between vehicles alongside Imran Khan Ashraf, also 36, in Bradford.

Ashraf was stopped and arrested in Bolton, and a vacuum-packed bag containing just shy of £130,000 was found hidden inside his vehicle. The cash was seized along with four mobile phones.

Kara was arrested later the same afternoon in Bradford by West Yorkshire Police officers, who seized two mobile phones from him. Meanwhile, NCA officers searched his home address and discovered 51 kilos of heroin.

As the news of Kara's arrest reached Syed, he set about fleeing the UK, knowing the contents of his lieutenant's phones would implicate him as the crime group's kingpin.

He swiftly swapped his luxury cars – a Mercedes GLE and a Nissan GTR – for two watches valued at £63,000 and £40,000 respectively. Two days after Kara's arrest, on 19 September 2019, Syed left the UK.

Photos found on Kara's phone included invoices for consignment shipments and large quantities of cash, as well as snaps of Syed driving a forklift truck used to offload drug deliveries.

While overseas he continued to run his drug trafficking empire, and his crime group arranged for huge shipments of up to 200 kilos of cocaine and heroin to be smuggled into the UK.

Some of the shipments were seized by law enforcement, including 155 kilos of cocaine seized by the Dutch authorities in August 2020.

He has now finally been brought to justice following a joint operation by West Yorkshire Police and the NCA.

Nigel Coles, NCA senior investigating officer, said: "We have successfully prosecuted and gained significant custodial sentences against individuals at every level of this crime group, dismantling Syed's large-scale international operation from top to bottom.

"And justice has now been served to one of Britain's biggest crime bosses.

"This result is a culmination of extensive investigations led by teams here at the NCA and at West Yorkshire Police.

"I hope Syed's conviction provides some sense of justice to the family of Asghar Badshah, who sadly had his life taken by a man who would stop at nothing to protect his criminal empire."

Detective Chief Superintendent Heather Whoriskey, West Yorkshire Police senior investigating officer, said: "Syed kidnapped, tortured and murdered his own uncle for information as he believed that Asghar had stolen money from him.

"This perceived debt was about more than just money, it was about Syed's reputation and role as an international drug trafficker. Syed was a professional criminal who would import and distribute huge amounts of cocaine and heroin.

"Shortly after the murder Syed fled the country and continued to traffic drugs across the continent.

"Today's sentence is the culmination of years of hard work. We would like to thank our partners at the National Crime Agency for assisting us in bringing Syed back to this country to face his crimes.

"This has been a lengthy and trying ordeal for the family of Asghar Badshah. They have been courageous, patient and brave throughout the whole process. Although today's sentence will never bring him back, I hope it gives his family some comfort and closure knowing that the man responsible for his death has been sentenced for his murder."

Other members of Syed’s organised crime gang have also been jailed:

• Laraib Irshad, 29 from Rochdale, who was a lieutenant was jailed for 22 years and nine months
• Tariq Muneed, 33, from Rochdale, who was a driver for the group was jailed for 10 years and two months
• Jack Hinchcliffe, 47, from Rochdale, who was also a driver, was jailed for 10 years and one month
• Fayyaz Ashraf, 41, from Bradford, was a customer and associate and was jailed for seven years and two months
• Yusuf Kara, 36, from Bradford was a lieutenant for the group and jailed for 10 years and six months
• Imran Khan Ashraf, 36, from Bradford was jailed for two years and three months for his role as a driver
• Qaisar Shah, 40, of no fixed abode, was convicted of manslaughter, conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to possess criminal property and jailed for 18 years
• Liam Buckley, 38, , of no fixed abode, was convicted of conspiracy to kidnap and jailed forseven years and two months
• Sabbah Shahmuradi, 39, of no fixed abode, was convicted of conspiracy to kidnap and jailed forseven years and two months
• Wajid Hussain, 43, of no fixed abode, was convicted of conspiracy to kidnap and jailed for four years and two months
• Sobia Syed Sob, 41, of no fixed abode, was convicted of conspiracy to possess criminal property and given a two year sentence, supsended for two years