Married couple found guilty of international cocaine smuggling plot likened to Breaking Bad and Ozark | UK News

A married couple suspected of arranging to kill their adopted son for an insurance payout have been found guilty of smuggling millions of pounds worth of cocaine from the UK to Australia.

Prosecutors compared Arti Dhir, 59, and 35-year-old Kavaljitsinh Raijada’s “pivotal role” in the international drugs operation to the plots of American TV crime dramas Ozark and Breaking Bad.

Australian police intercepted a consignment of half a tonne of cocaine, with a wholesale value of £57m, on a commercial cargo flight at Sydney Airport on 15 May 2021.

Southwark Crown Court heard it was one of 15 similar shipments between June 2019 and May 2021, while nearly £3m in cash was also found in a west London storage lock-up linked to the pair.

Dhir and Raijada denied involvement but were found guilty of 12 counts of drug smuggling and 18 charges relating to money laundering by a jury.

Prosecutor Hugh French told the court: “It’s like something out of Breaking Bad or Ozark,” and described the “ruthless and greedy” pair as “very different from the average married couple”.

“It was not the 25-year age gap that was different – it was the fact that they operated in the world of international organised crime,” he added.

‘Murder plot’

The jury was not told that Dhir and Raijada are wanted in India over an alleged plot to kill their adopted son for an insurance payout.

They allegedly arranged to adopt 11-year-old Gopal Sejani, who lived with his family in the same village as Raijada’s father, before taking out a life insurance policy.

Gopal was snatched by two men on a motorbike and later found with stab wounds to the stomach. He died in hospital on 11 February 2017.

His brother-in-law Harsukhbhai Kardani also died after being stabbed in the stomach during the attack.

Dhir and Raijada were arrested in the UK later that year but successfully avoided extradition to face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, murder, attempting to commit murder, kidnapping and abduction for the purpose of committing murder and abetting a crime.

The duo denied the allegations, which have never been tested in court, but a judge in the extradition case found there was a “prima facie case” against them.

However, she said they should not be sent to India because if they were found guilty “they would be imprisoned for life with no prospect of release”, which would breach their human rights, according to a 2020 High Court judgment upholding the decision.

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The couple’s drug smuggling trial heard that Dhir and Raijada had a detailed knowledge of the commercial freight system, having both previously worked for Worldwide Flight Services at Heathrow Airport‘s cargo office.

The duo used a complex trail of fake documentation and front companies using the names of other people, including Tatiana Pavalachi, a Romanian cleaner who Raijada was having an affair with.

Ms Pavalachi, who used Google Translate to help her communicate, asked Raijada to remove her name as a director and in one message said: “You know sometimes I think you’re just using me.”

The couple claimed Pankaj Patel, whose name was also used on paperwork, was the “Mr Big” behind the smuggling operation. But Home Office records show he left the country in 2015 and investigators do not suspect he had any involvement.

Money laundering

Dhir and Raijada were linked to a total of 37 flights – 15 of which did not have their cargo scanned, the court heard. Prosecutors believe those 15 planes all had drugs on board, although cocaine was only seized from one of them.

A total of 568kg of the Class A drug, with a purity of up to 87%, was discovered hidden in a commercial shipment of distinctive aluminium toolboxes, labelled as containing lift and tail parts, along with a fake invoice from a legitimate firm with no knowledge of the crime.

Mr French said that, “just like in Breaking Bad”, Dhir and Raijada used a car wash as part of their money laundering operation.

The pair bought an £800,000 two-bedroom apartment, with £280,000 ostensibly from Raijada’s parents, in a luxury development in Ealing, west London, without a mortgage.

Gold-plated silver bars worth about £5,000, a safety deposit box containing £59,000 along with jewellery, and a further £13,870 were all found in the flat.

Officers also found nearly £3m in cash stuffed inside suitcases and an aluminium box at a lock-up rented under Raijada’s mother’s name – said to be the couple’s profit from drug smuggling.

Piers Phillips, National Crime Agency senior investigating officer, said: “Arti Dhir and Kavaljitsinh Raijada used their insider knowledge of the air freight industry to traffic cocaine worth tens of millions of pounds from the UK to Australia, where they knew they could maximise their revenue.

“They kept their illicit profits in cash at their home and in storage units, as well as purchasing property and gold and silver in an attempt to hide their wealth. These defendants may have thought they were removed from the misery caused by the drugs trade but their greed was fuelling it.”

Commander of the New South Wales Police Force organised crime squad, Detective Superintendent Peter Faux, said the result was a great example of how law enforcement are working together to disrupt the international drug trade.

Det Supt Faux said: “The partnership between both authorities in Australia, and abroad, was the reason police were able to stop a sophisticated attempt at importing drugs via air freight into Australia and hold those responsible accountable.

“Serious and organised criminal networks often have no borders, which is why working collaboratively with our international counterparts is so important to tackle what is a global issue.”

The pair are due to be sentenced on Tuesday.