Man jailed for drugs plot with pair

A 45-year-old Turkish hotel owner who admitted conspiring with two Shropshire men to smuggle thousands of pounds worth of heroin into the UK, has been jailed for eight years.

Kemal Erdogan, who was already serving 13 years for supplying drugs, was said to have masterminded the plot with Naseer Zaman and Dean Gordon from his prison cell.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday Judge Michael Challinor told Erdogan that he had been at "the very heart" of the conspiracy to import up to 10 kilos of drugs and imposed a consecutive eight-year sentence.

He said Erdogan had used his contacts in Turkey and that the entire enterprise had continued while the defendant was a serving prisoner.

"It only failed because a price for the drugs could not be agreed - and for no other reason," said Judge Challinor.

"You were very determined and your culpability is very high.

"The level of harm to the public had you succeeded would have been considerable," he added.

The court heard that Erdogan, from Hoxton, North London, was jailed for 13 years in May 2002 for supplying heroin and he was expected to be deported back to Turkey when he had completed his sentence.

An application for a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act against Erdogan was adjourned until November.

Following legal submissions earlier this week Erdogan pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring with Zaman, Gordon and Ilhan Durson to import heroin to the UK between August 2005 and September 2006. Mr Nicholas Dean, prosecuting, said that Erdogan had met Gordon at Lowdham Grange prison in Nottinghamshire after Gordon was jailed for nine years in 2004 for supplying drugs.

He said Erdogan made contact with Zaman through Gordon, using coded and cryptic phone calls, text and voice mail messages, to set up meetings with Durson, who was Erdogan's man on the outside.

Mr Dean said the series of messages revealed efforts to set up a deal to import up to 10 kilos of heroin, but by September 2006 it had fallen through.

At a previous hearing Gordon, 32, formerly of Teal Close, Stirchley, and Zaman, 38, of Abbey Road, Lilleshall, had admitted conspiring together to import heroin between August 2005, and September 2006.

Zaman also admitted conspiring with Harvinder Singh Mattu, 34, and five other people to import cocaine between July and September 2005.

Gordon was jailed for a further eight years and Mattu, of Uxbridge, Middlesex, was jailed for seven years. Sentence on Zaman was adjourned for reports and he remains in custody.