Pair linked to nearly £45k "drug trafficking" cash after police stop car in Sheffield

Sheffield Crown Court heard on August 6 how driver Aadam Iqbal, aged 24, and Aqeeb Hussain, aged 26, were arrested after a BMW 2 Series hire car was stopped by police in Sheffield driving away from the city centre.

Richard Thyne, prosecuting, said a search of that vehicle resulted in the recovery of a carrier bag with £44,915 in cash and a phone revealed contact with a third man during this time.

He added: “The money was the likely proceeds of drug trafficking.”

Hussain, who has previous convictions for drug offences and is a serving prisoner at HMP Doncaster, and Iqbal, of Ward End Park Road, Birmingham, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to conspiring to conceal, disguise, convert or transfer or remove criminal property, namely cash, with a third man after the incident on April 1, 2019.

Clarkson Baptiste, defending, said Hussain has spent along time in custody awaiting his sentence for conspiring to possess criminal property.

Nicholas Berry, defending, said Iqbal had been at university but he had dropped out because of a student loan debt and due to financial pressure he got involved in this offending for a £200 payment.

Recorder Meghan Rhys sentenced Hussain to 18 months of custody to be served concurrently with the custodial sentence he is currently serving for conspiring to supply class A drugs heroin and cocaine.

She sentenced Iqbal to 26 weeks of custody suspended for 12 months with 120 hours of unpaid work and a four-week curfew.