Two sisters were jailed on Tuesday after laundering around £80,000 between them for their drug dealing brothers in Rochdale.
Surriya Bi, 33, of Park Road, was jailed for 22 months and Asia Bi, 38, also of Park Road, was given 18 months at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court after they admitted money laundering for their brothers’ drug dealing income.
Under Proceeds of Crime Act legislation both women were also ordered to pay back £40,000 within six months or face a further 12 months in prison.
Detective Constable Gerard Fisher said: “Between them these two sisters have laundered £80,000, money provided by their brothers and their associates from drug dealing activities.
“This has been a long, drawn out inquiry that we first started in 2010.
“Along the way we took out top and street level dealers. Now we have secured convictions against those not involved in the drug dealing directly, but who have benefited financially from it.”
The investigation began after the conviction of the sisters’ brother Mohammed Shafiq, 33, of Park Road who was jailed for six years in March 2011 for drugs offences.
Officers then found that the sisters had purchased a house with large deposits. Surriya bought a house on Park Road paying a £40,000 deposit as well as owning a 2007 Audi A4 priced at £16,000.
She also paid a 10% deposit on a second house that she bought for £70,000 in November 2009 and had a collective balance in her bank accounts of £7,000.
Asia paid a deposit of £20,000 on a house she bought on Roch Street for £67,000 in March 2005 and had paid £36,000 off the mortgage between May 2007 and June 2008.
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