Men sentenced for blackmail, robbery and drugs offences

Zeeshan Ali

3 More Image(s) In Gallery

Scroll down for Video

A Rochdale mas was among four men to have been jailed for blackmail, robbery and drugs offences in Manchester.

Zeeshan Ali (17/02/1997), of King Street South, Rochdale was sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison after pleading guilty to harassment, robbery, possession with intent to supply cannabis and witness intimidation at an earlier hearing.

Qasim Hafeez (09/03/1997), of Grosvenor Road, Manchester was sentenced to nine years in prison after being found guilty of blackmail and witness intimidation. He had pleaded guilty to robbery and possession with intent to supply cannabis at an earlier hearing.

Asif Hafeez (22/07/1994) of Gartland Walk, Manchester was sentenced to five years and three months in prison after being found guilty of blackmail and witness intimidation. He had pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cannabis at an earlier hearing.

Shazad Hafeez of (24/03/1996) of Hazelbottom Road, Manchester was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison after being found guilty of witness intimidation. He had pleaded guilty to robbery at an earlier hearing.

They have also all been given a two year banning order preventing them from entering Piccadilly Gardens for two years after their release.

In November 2014, a man working as a drug runner for Asif Hafeez was arrested. As a result of the arrest and cannabis being seized from the man, Asif attended the arrested man’s address and demanded money from his family.

Fearing for his son’s safety, the man’s father agreed to pay, thinking that it would be the end of the matter but Qasim Hafeez and Zeeshan Ali began showing up persistently at the house to demand more money and threaten the family further as well as damage their property.

Initial enquiries suggested Shazad had also been involved and as a result all four were charged with blackmail.

Whilst this campaign of abuse was going on, Asif, Qasim and Ali were all under investigation for drug offences by the Op Mandera team who were able to determine that the three of them were heavily involved in the supply of drugs in Piccadilly Gardens.

The team were also able to link Ali, Qasim and Shazad to a violent robbery that happened at a newsagents in the Whalley Range area of south Manchester in October 2014.

Three men had entered the store wearing balaclavas and armed with baseball bats before dragging the owner into another room and choking him with his own clothing. They only stopped when customers came into the shop.

Whilst the men were in prison after being remanded to await trial for the blackmail charge, they made a number of threatening phone calls to the victims to try and get them to drop their complaint.

When officers went to the victims address to discuss the investigation, they overheard two phone calls made by the offenders to again try and threaten them into dropping the complaint.

The men have now all been jailed.

Inspector Phil Spurgeon of the GMP City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “This has been quite a large investigation which began as one into cannabis supply before it grew to include a robbery, blackmail and witness intimidation.

“Had it not been for the hard work and determination of the Operation Mandera team then it is possible that the investigation into the robbery and blackmail would not have been concluded here today.

“The fight against drug supply in Piccadilly Gardens is an on-going battle but with the excellent work of the Op Mandera team, we are slowly weeding the dealers out of the area and I want to assure everybody that we have no intention of slowing down.”