Call centre heroin dealer jailed

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A 27-year-old man who masterminded a multi-million pound heroin operation from his desk at a South Yorkshire call centre has been jailed for 11 years.

Shoukat Ali Yaqoob, from Sheffield, was part of a gang supplying Yorkshire and the Midlands with drugs valued at £10m, Gloucester Crown Court heard.

The operation was discovered in May after a gang member was arrested in the Tredworth area of Gloucester.

Jailing Yaqoob Judge Jamie Tabor said he was at the heart of the conspiracy.

The court heard Yaqoob set up many of his deals over the phone at his desk at a call centre in Sheffield - even though bosses claimed to record calls.

'Money laundering'

Yaqoob and Christopher Dewey, 27, from Doncaster, pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiring to supply a class A drug.

Yaqoob also admitted one charge of money laundering.

Dewey, who was also sentenced on Friday, played a lesser role in the conspiracy and was jailed for five years.

Two other gang members, Simon Harrison, 38, from Gloucester, and Siraz Bobat, 39, from Birstall, Leicestershire, had both denied a charge of conspiring to supply a Class A drug, but were convicted at Gloucester Crown Court by a jury on Wednesday.

Harrison and Bobat are due to appear in court again next week for sentencing.

The drug operation distributed throughout Leicestershire, Gloucestershire and Yorkshire was described by police as industrial in scale.

But the operation was smashed in May when detectives caught one gang member in the Tredworth area of Gloucester with a bag containing £13,000 in cash and 1kg of heroin, worth £50,000, in a nearby van.

'Massive dealing'

Judge Jamie Tabor QC told Yaqoob: "You were dealing in drugs on a massive scale and you were at the heart of a conspiracy to provide heroin across Yorkshire and eventually into Gloucestershire too.

"It was only through the skill of Gloucestershire Police that this was discovered.

"The amount you provided over a nine month period is at least 50kg of pure heroin, delivered two or three times a week over a 30-week period.

"That is massive dealing and furthermore you had cutting equipment - this demonstrates you were at the heart of the conspiracy."