Bid to find Shipley drug smuggler's missing millions

News imageCrimestoppers Waheed KhalilCrimestoppers
Waheed Khalil admitted conspiring to illegally import heroin in 2014

Attempts are being made to retrieve more than £6m from a man jailed for his part in a £49m heroin smuggling plot.

Waheed Khalil, of Selborne Terrace, Shipley, was jailed for 18-and-a-half years after admitting conspiracy to illegally import the drug in 2014.

A judge at Leeds Crown Court decided he had made £6,181,250 from his criminal activities. He only had £7,540 to pay back at the time

An appeal has been made to get back the outstanding £6,173,710.

Crimestoppers wants to hear from anyone who knows of any new assets Khalil may have.

Khalil was one of three men jailed over a plot to smuggle 245kg of heroin into the UK hidden in a consignment of towels.

New assets

A National Crime Agency investigation found Khalil, his brother Yasser Khalil and Stuart Maich conspired to import the Class A drug from Pakistan using a legitimate company set up as a front for drug trafficking.

In 2012, Border Force officers at the Port of Felixstowe searched a sea freight container from Port Qasim.

It contained 592 cartons of towels, 124 of which had been modified to hide 2kgs of heroin inside.

A spokesman for Crimestoppers said: "If anyone knows of any new assets that Waheed may have please get in contact with us, either anonymously online or by phone."