Mehmet Külekçi convicted three years after accomplices were sentenced
Mehmet Külekçi
THE OWNER of a textiles company was jailed for 20 years on Monday, 2 December for his involvement in the trafficking of close to 100 kilograms of heroin.
Mehmet Külekçi, 46, of no fixed abode, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, namely 96 kilograms of heroin.
He had earlier pleaded guilty at the same court and was remanded in custody until sentencing.
This result follows a three year investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service’s Trident Gang Crime Command which had already seen three others jailed for 62 years for their involvement in trafficking the heroin, with a street value of £4 million.
On 4 March 2010, officers witnessed an exchange of three large cardboard boxes in Dulas Street, Finsbury Park, N4, involving three people: Harold Morris, 49, Hikmet Sevim, 48, and Florina Burducea, 42. The boxes were placed in the rear of a van and driven off by Morris. He was stopped a short distance away and arrested after officers discovered the heroin in the rear of his van.
In December 2010 all three were convicted after a trial lasting 12 weeks at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Sevim and Burducea received 22 years imprisonment and Morris received 18 years imprisonment.
The van seized by police
Following these convictions, subsequent enquiries later identified Külekçi, who owned textile companies in both Romania and the UK, as being the person responsible for the importation of the heroin into the UK. The drugs had been secreted in a batch of textiles on a lorry destined for his English warehouse. He was primarily based in Romania and a European Arrest Warrant was issued and he was extradited back to the UK in October 2012.
Investigating officer, Detective Inspector Steve Meechan, Trident’s East Proactive Team, said: “This sentencing brings to a conclusion a complex and multi-faceted investigation into the seizure of a significant consignment of heroin destined for the streets of London. This three year inquiry, involving the Met, UK and International law enforcement has dismantled a hugely profitable and sophisticated drug dealing network.
“Külekçi has been convicted of organising the drugs route into the UK and is undoubtedly the controlling head of this operation. The Trident Gang Crime Command are committed to targeting the perpetrators of such crimes to reduce the availability of Class A drugs within the capital, impacting directly upon those involved in gang related criminality.
“The lengthy prison sentence given to Külekçi should send a clear message to those who are involved in such high level criminality that Trident officers will continue to work across borough, county and country boundaries to place them before the courts.”
