The final member of an crime group which sold illegal tobacco while money-laundering more than £1.5m, using Barry stores in their criminal empire, has been sentenced.
Serhang Ahmadi, 35, from Cardiff was sentenced to four years imprisonment on Friday, July 19, at Swansea Crown Court.
Ahmadi was sentenced after the other ten members of the gang due to an additional charge of witness intimidation relating to the case which resulted in a three-day trial, but was found not guilty of this charge due to hearsay evidence.
With this final sentence being handed down by the court, the group were sentenced to a total of 29 years imprisonment with a further 9 years given in suspended sentences, for carrying out a ‘business for a fraudulent purpose' to the value of £1.8 million between September 6, 2013, until February 5, 2022.
During the investigation, officers from Cardiff, and Bridgend and Vale councils' Shared Regulatory Services (SRS) seized £600,000 of illegal tobacco, based on market cost, along with £12,500 worth of Nitrous Oxide cannisters.
The operation against the gang began in February 2020, following intelligence that several shops in the South Wales area were selling illegal tobacco and Nitrous Oxide.
Significant amounts of cigarettes and tobacco were seized initially, but the shops appeared to restock immediately, and continued to sell the illegal products to the local community, including children.
The criminal group operated their business from at least seven shops in South Wales including Barry Stores, Tynewydd Road; European Shop, Holton Road; and World and Food Ltd, Holton Road.
The gang used the shops as a front, appearing to sell genuine products and other legitimate produce, but in fact, an intricate subterfuge was being carried out with flats above the shops and other hidden spaces used to hide huge amounts of illegal tobacco which was being sold to customers.
The court heard that at a conservative estimate, each shop was making approximately £1000 a day from selling illegal tobacco and Nitrous Oxide, with the total value of illegal sales estimated at £3.8m.
Some of the illegal tobacco was stored in Safestore units or in the defendant's homes, with the tobacco and cigarettes being moved in cars with blacked out windows to the shops and the flats above late at night or in the early hours of the morning.
The illegal tobacco was often stored in large, concealed spaces in the shops or the flats. Powerful, remote controlled, electric magnets were used to unlock these spaces which were invisible to the human eye and only found by using sniffer dogs and by breaking through walls.
Other techniques the gang used to deliver their products included electric winches and plastic tubes linking the shop with the flat above, with tobacco being passed down a tube when a customer made a purchase.
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