Sibling heroin dealers from Burnley ordered to pay back £258k (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Sibling heroin dealers from Burnley ordered to pay back £258k

12:00pm Monday 8th October 2012 in News By Tyrone Marshall, Reporter

THREE Burnley siblings who were convicted of supplying heroin in the town have been ordered to pay back over £258,000.

Mohammed Haider Rasool, 23, of Claughton Street, was jailed for five years one month and Mohammed Omar Rasul, 27, also of Claughton Street, was sentenced to five years four months behind bars after both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin.

Their sister, Amna Rasul, 29, of Cleaver Street, was given a 12-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to allowing her three houses to be used for the supply of heroin.

A hearing at Burnley Crown Court on Friday heard they had benefited from their crimes by £258,000.

DS Martin Kennedy, from Pennine Division’s targeted crime unit said: “All three operated a significant and lucrative drug dealing network and I hope this sends a clear message to those people who are involved in dealing drugs.

“If a criminal has financially benefited from crime we will seek to strip them of their assets through the courts.

“This can be in the form of taking money, cars — even their homes — and if we become aware that they have other assets in the future we will continue to confiscate them until the full total of their benefit has been met.”

Their current assets were set at just over £13,000, which they must pay within six months or the two brothers will face between two and six months in prison.

Further assets can also be confiscated if they are identified in the future.

All three were arrested after a lengthy police investigation into the supply of heroin between December 2010 and February 2011.

During the investigation officers discovered around 570g of heroin with an estimated street value of £33,000 hidden under the bedroom floorboards at an address raided on Colbran Street.

Officers also seized £7,000 cash from an address on Claughton Street.