Homes worth £17 million seized as police move in on organised crime gang

A total of 59 properties have been recovered following National Crime Agency investigations into the group carried out over almost a decade.

The NCA also conducted investigations over an eight-and-a-half year period into dozens of individuals who were suspected of financial links to drug dealers in East Birmingham.

Officers established that the properties were acquired using the proceeds of crime including heroin importation and distribution, fraud and money laundering.

Alam and Ameran Zeb Khan have both been convicted of drug trafficking offences, the former on three occasions.

It was found that they would use family members and wider associates to hold properties on their behalf, which was designed to conceal and launder the proceeds of their unlawful conduct.

The majority of the 59 properties recovered were private residential properties, which were rented out in the Bordesley Green or Selly Oak areas of Birmingham. Three homes were located in the seaside town of Bangor in Northern Ireland.

Damage

Larger properties recovered included a house worth £235,000 on Stoney Lane in Birmingham, that was being renovated as the Zeb Khan family home. One premises was a commercial building on Cherrywood Road that was converted into a gym called Rampage Fitness. Two properties consisted of seven and five apartments.

Significant damage was caused to several of the properties prior to the NCA taking control of them.

Investigations were first launched in December 2011 after a tip from Northern Ireland police.

Andy Lewis, head of asset denial at the NCA, said: “This result displays the power of civil investigations working in tandem with criminal ones to take high-harm organised crime groups down.

"Over several years, our officers have painstakingly identified unlawfully-held assets worth millions of pounds, and ensured that the subjects will no longer benefit from them.

"We will continue our work to scrutinise wealth we think is obtained from criminality, and take away their illicit assets."

Graeme Biggar, Director General of the National Economic Crime Centre, said: "We are determined to stop criminals profiting from their crime.

"Where criminals have bought properties with illicit funds, in Birmingham, Bangor or anywhere in the UK, we will use all the powers at our disposal to identify them and to seize them."