An organized criminal gang involving Indian-origin operatives has been busted after a two-year investigation by the UK’s crime agency, which said it will continue probing their links to “politically exposed individuals overseas”.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the gang of Rickinder Hare (36), Neelen Balarajah (34), and Hitesh Vadolia (54), was responsible for laundering millions in criminal cash and banned class A and B drug distribution. They were also wanted for the attempted fraudulent acquisition of GBP 1.5 million of government grants.
While Balarajah was sentenced to 13 years and six months imprisonment on July 15, Hare was sentenced to one-year imprisonment, suspended for two years, and given 400 hours of community service last month. Vadolia, the so-called “cash courier”, faced multiple money laundering charges in connection with the transfers of cash totaling to GBP 270,000 but died before trial.
Indian-origin gangs involving drug smuggling in UK:
In January, 2024 - Indian-origin couple jailed in UK for exporting drugs to Australia. The couple was behind a company that had sent the drugs by plan under a cover load of metal toolboxes. This couple in the U.K., whose extradition was sought by India on charges of the murder of their adopted son in Gujarat, has been sentenced to 33 years in prison each after being convicted of exporting more than half a tonne of cocaine to Australia. Arti Dhir (59), and Kavaljitsinh Raijada (35), from Hanwell in Ealing were identified by the National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators after Australian Border Force intercepted the cocaine worth £57 million upon its arrival in Sydney in May 2021.
In April 2023 - NCA officers arrested and sent to jail Indian-origin gang boss Raj Singh (45), from Surry in south-east England. He involved drugs smuggling and money laundering cases. Cops proved that Raj Singh gang ran an organized crime group and regularly worked together with Waqas Iqbal (41) to buy and sell class A & B drugs and fire arms.
In May, 2023 - Three Indian-origin (Punjab-origin) members of a criminal gang who were found guilty of smuggling drugs into the UK from Canada have been sentenced to nearly 15-year imprisonment by a UK court. Kuran Gill (32), Jag Singh (32), and Govind Bahia (30), were members of an organized crime group and were caught along with accomplice Gregory Blacklock, 32, when UK Border Force officers discovered two pallet loads or large boxes of cannabis within a shipment of computer casing at Heathrow Airport in February, 2023.
In June, 2023 - A 28-year-old Indian-origin woman is among six people jailed for their role in using minor children in their drugs supply operations in the UK. Sarina Duggal (28) was sentence to 7 years' imprisonment for her role as a member of a gang that controlled drugs supply in and around London and Birmingham and supplied in Bournemouth.
In December 2023 - Two Indian-origin men have been sentenced to a total of 34 years' imprisonment in Britain after a London trial found them guilty of smuggling drugs hidden amid farm produce from Africa and South America. Anand Tripathi (61), and Varun Bhardwaj (39), were also convicted of evading import duty payable on cigarettes which came hidden alongside biscuits from Chennai, Bombay Mix snacks from Mumbai and coconut fiber used to manufacture doormats from Sri Lanka.