Pair jailed for part in heroin ‘factory’

Officers forced their way into a house in Carrington Street, in the city, in July 2011 and caught Hamzah Ibrahim and Imran Naeem red-handed as they helped to process a massive haul of the Class A drug which could have been “cut” to make more than £1.5m worth of street-level heroin.

The duo had been wearing face masks and latex gloves and used food mixers to bulk up the pure heroin with adulterants such as paracetamol and caffeine.

Bradford Crown Court heard a hydraulic press, a money-counting machine and just over £28,000 in cash were also found at the property.

Prosecutor Nicholas Worsley told the court that on the first floor of the house the air was thick with acrid-tasting powder which indicated that drug cutting, or “bashing”, had been in progress when the police arrived. Heroin was being combined with adulterants in food mixers and the two defendants were found on the top floor together with discarded face masks and latex gloves.

A search of the house also revealed empty packaging which suggested that other quantities of heroin had already been “processed” which could have been worth around £2m on the streets.

Naeem, 30, who lived at another house in Carrington Street, and Ibrahim, 24, of Cecil Avenue, both pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to supply heroin over a period between June 1 and July 23, 2011.

Barrister Andrew Dallas, for Ibrahim, said his client had a £200-a-week heroin habit at the time and was recruited by others who remained beyond the reach of the law. He said Ibrahim and Naeem were the people taking terrible risks for the benefit of others.

Judge Colin Burn said he was persuaded neither defendant was a leading light in the operation and had not retained any of the massive profits that would have resulted, but they had played a management role in processing the heroin.