A MAN who trafficked cannabis into the UK via FedEx parcels threatened staff who intercepted drugs parcels at a West Yorkshire depot.
Arfan Khan began following a delivery driver and, with Mohammed Naim, confronted him at the depot.
The driver was threatened and intimidated into identifying a co-worker, who was also threatened.
Khan then demanded £30,000, and later £10,000, in payment for the parcels containing cannabis that had been seized.
The pair from Bradford are now beginning lengthy jail sentences after a judge described their behaviour as “audacious and brazen”.
His Honour Judge Ahmed Nadim handed Khan six years and eight months’ imprisonment, with Naim receiving three years and nine months.
Both men face a ten-year restraining order banning them from any contact with their victims.
Last month, prosecutor Matthew Moore-Taylor described Khan, 35, of Kensington Street in Girlington, and Naim, 38, of Crow Tree Lane in Allerton, as “integral members” of an organisation engaged in international trafficking of cannabis from the United States into the UK.
The drugs reached the UK via FedEx but in late 2022 eagle-eyed staff became suspicious and were given authority to open a parcel that was found to contain vacuum-sealed cannabis.
Further parcels were identified, intercepted, and turned over to Border Force.
Many had been sent from the same account in California.
Realising that parcels were being intercepted, Khan began following a delivery driver on his rounds and on December 19, 2023, went to the depot to retrieve a parcel that had been intercepted.
The visit was caught on CCTV.
In January 2024, arrangements were made to deliver a parcel to Naim’s address in Crow Tree Lane.
The phone number connected to the delivery was Khan’s.
Instead, the parcel was intercepted and returned to the depot.
When opened it contained shampoo and an empty takeaway container.
Mr Moore-Taylor said: “The significance of these innocuous items [are] that they appear to have been a ploy employed by the defendants and their associates in an attempt to identify FedEx employees and drivers involved in the interception of their parcels.”
Khan and Naim followed a driver on his route and turned up at the depot where they told him he owed them £30,000 for the missing parcels.
They threatened to “cut him and his family up” if he did not get their parcels back.
In fear, the driver identified another member of staff and even though police officers arrived on the scene he was too frightened to divulge what was happening.
Minutes later Khan left a voicemail on the second worker’s phone in which he threatened violence and said he would go to his home.
He said: “You’ve got 24 hours to sort it out. If not, we’re coming to the depot again. We’re not gonna ring again. Whatever happens, happens.”
There were more calls for the return of the drugs parcels and a further blackmail demand for £10,000.
The police were alerted and an officer heard a conversation involving blackmail and threats between Khan and Naim and the victim, who said he only had £200 to his name.
Khan said the £200 would be accepted as a first instalment against the debt they suggested he owed them.
During police interviews, Khan declined to answer questions and Naim gave “no comment” answers.
Khan was charged with two counts of blackmail.
Naim was charged with affray and assisting an offender.
In victim personal statements, the FedEx workers said they had been left in fear for their lives.
Both said they were scared and paranoid, and one said he was in “genuine fear” that he would be found by Khan and Naim who would “seek retribution”.
In mitigation, the court heard that both Khan and Naim accepted the impact of their offending on the victims’ lives.
Sentencing them, Judge Nadim said the threats they made were “serious and chilling” and that each of the victims was “terrified for his safety and that of his family.”
He added: “You targeted them and that must be reflected in the sentence that this court passes.”
He noted that the offending was linked to drug trafficking and organised crime and that the “audacious and brazen” manner in which the victims were followed and confronted had left “an enduring impact” upon them.
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