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A gangster who wore a diamond encrusted Rolex watch, drove an expensive car and splashed out on large cash purchases, must pay back more than £2.5m of his criminal gains.
In the departure lounge of Terminal one at Manchester Airport, Asim Tufail’s crime empire came crashing down, as he and his son Junnaid were arrested as they were set to fly out to Dubai.
The pair were ‘in it together’ as gun runners and drug dealers, prosecutors said. On the day of the arrest at Ringway, Asim was wearing a diamond encrusted Rolex worth £70,000, with his son wearing a £11,000 Rolex.
Asim, 52, from Northenden, drove an expensive car and made ‘large cash purchases’, Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard previously. His crimes were exposed following the infiltration of the EncroChat communications network by European law enforcement, an encrypted platform which Asim Tufail and other organised criminals used to conduct their shady deals.
After being jailed for 23 years following his conviction for drug and gun crimes, prosecutors sought to claw back Asim Tufail’s ill-gotten gains as part of an investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.
Tufail contested the case and gave evidence in court in his defence. But, giving his ruling during a hearing at Cambridge Crown Court this morning (Nov 6), Judge Jonathan Seely said: “His evidence, in my assessment, lacked a shred of plausibility.” Sign up now for the latest news on the North Wales Live Whatsapp community
The judge said that Tufail ‘has plainly hidden very substantial assets’. He ruled that Tufail had benefited from crime to the tune of £2,615,023.80.
Judge Seely made a confiscation order to the same value, and ordered that if the sum is not paid, then Tufail could face an additional nine years in prison.
Junnaid Tufail was also previously convicted of drug and gun offences, and was jailed for 11 years. Junnaid followed his dad into crime aged just 19, and told how he regarded his father as his ‘role model’.
Asim had spent much of his son’s childhood in jail, after previously being sentenced to 14 years for drug dealing. But following his release Asim simply carried on committing crime, adding firearms trafficking and an international money laundering operation to his underworld CV.
Asim was also called in by other criminals to assist with ‘enforcement’ in underworld disputes. He outwardly appeared to be a ‘profitable businessman’ who enjoyed ‘the trappings of wealth’, but the true source of Asim’s wealth was revealed by the hacking of EncroChat.
Following a trial last year, Asim Tufail, of Kenmore Road, Northenden, was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs, three counts of conspiring to sell or transfer a prohibited weapon, two counts of blackmail and one count of money laundering. He was found not guilty of one count of being concerned in the production of class B drugs.
Junnaid Tufail, of the same address, pleaded guilty after his trial had started to one count of conspiracy to supply class A drugs and two counts of conspiring to sell or transfer a prohibited weapon.
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