£70,000 confiscated from former Bearsden drug dealer

The confiscation order was made against Sohaib Qureshi (36) at Edinburgh High Court on Tuesday, January 15.

Qureshi, who is now serving a sentence of 12 years in prison, pleaded guilty to involvement in the supply of cocaine between June 2008 and April 2009.

Lindsey Miller, head of the serious and organised crime division (SOCD), said: “Qureshi was heavily involved in the supply of cocaine in the Glasgow area.

“His conviction for dealing drugs allows our forensic accountants to investigate his previous six years’ income, in order to anaylse what proportion of it could not be accounted for legitimately.

“After full investigation of his accounts, £1,200,000 was found to be illegitimate and was therefore deemed to be proceeds of crime.

“This confiscation order represents the full amount of the illegal profits available to us at this time. Should further assets of Qureshi’s be uncovered, we can ask the court to recalculate the confiscation order up to the amount of the benefit recorded.

“This money will be added to the £60 million already gathered from proceeds of crime and will be re-invested by Scottish ministers through the CashBack for Communities programme.”

Detective chief superintendent Athol Aitken added: “We welcome the message that this judgement sends out.

“It highlights Scottish law enforcements willingness and ability to continue to pursue criminals after their conviction at court.

“Sohaib Qureshi played a key role in directing a serious organised crime network involved in the importation and distribution of class A drugs to Scotland.

“Identifying assets for seizure is a key area of our work and we are committed to working with our law enforcement partners to ensure criminals are pursued for the profits of their illegal dealings that bring harm and misery to our communities.”