Corrupt Cop Who Extorted Cash From Drug Dealers Dismissed, Jailed

A crooked former Metropolitan Police officer is facing eight years behind bars after hatching a Line of Duty-style extortion scheme with drug traffickers to steal money from rival groups in East London, United Kingdom.

Double-dealing cop Kashif Mahmood, 32, from Harlow in Essex, was described to be "audacious, corrupt, and criminal" after he recurringly extorted more than a million pounds from drug syndicates during organized fake stops while in police uniform, according to The Mirror.

Four other men and a woman received jail terms for conniving with Mahmood. They pleaded guilty to offenses including acquiring criminal property, money laundering, and drug supply.

Law enforcement concluded that conversations about the alleged fake police stops were exchanged through EncroChat, a platform used by criminals to communicate freely about their crimes, with beliefs the conversations were concealed through encryption.

The sophisticated criminal operation was run by Mutjaba Neazmand, a shadowy figure based in Dubai, who used EncroChat to interact with UK gang leader Mohsin Khan.

Khan would then pass on the details to Mahmood, who would in turn book out patrol cars from Stoke Newington Police station and pick up his accomplice, Ioan Gherghel, to pose as his partner, and target rival drug couriers.

The Khan gang was caught following a Chingford operation under police surveillance of a proactive money laundering team. Both in uniform, Mahmood and accomplice Gherghel targeted an undercover surveillance car in Chingford, East London, seizing a bag that contained a large amount of cash.

Officers stopped Mahmood to determine why the search of the target's car had been conducted, requesting he write an intelligence report of the incident. Mahmood was forced to go to his police station to complete the report, which was later used as evidence against him.

On April 28, 2020, Mahmood was arrested at his Harlow home and Gherghel in a Stratford address.

Prosecutors believed the gang had handed the ex-cop about half a million pounds in return for drugs and his collusion.

Authorities also made use of extensive mobile phone evidence available, leading to multiple arrests and the seizure of large amounts of cash found in the conspirators' homes, the BBC reported.

Passing the sentence, Judge David Tomlinson said Mahmood, who had served in the Met for 10 years, had abused his position of "power, trust and responsibility" for working alongside an organized crime gang controlled from Dubai.

Meanwhile, Mahmood's brothers Mohsin Khan, 36, Shazad Khan, 33, and Shabaz Khan, 33, Mohsin Khan's partner Maria Shah, 34, and Ioan Gherghel, 34, received sentences totaling 16 years. All six have been banned from leaving the UK for five years following their release, Sky News noted.

Shocked with the news, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick slammed the former cop for his corrupt behavior and betrayal but notes she's delighted Mahmood has been caught red-handed by Met's anti-corruption officers.

"They betray the rest of us and we deplore this form of corruption or any corruption," she said.

Mahmood's sentence was lessened from 12 years due to an early guilty plea. He was expelled from the Met Police in November following a misconduct hearing.

In early 2020, the EncroChat mobile phone network was penetrated by French police and intelligence agency cybersecurity experts, leading to the arrests of more than 1,500 suspects.