"the business that lined their pockets was that of organised crime."
A father and son arrested at Manchester Airport before they were due to travel to Dubai face lengthy jail sentences for several drugs and firearms offences.
Asim Tufail and his son Junnaid were both exposed as a result of the law enforcement infiltration of the EncroChat communications network.
Asim, who was wearing a £70,000 Rolex watch when he was arrested, was said to “outwardly” appear to be a “profitable businessman” who enjoyed “the trappings of wealth”.
Tim Storrie KC, prosecuting, said:
“But the profits did not come from any kind of legitimate trade.
“The business of Asim Tufail was criminal.”
Junnaid described his father as his “role model” and followed him into organised crime.
Mr Storrie continued: “The business they ran, the business that lined their pockets was that of organised crime.
“Guns, drugs, money and threats of violence formed the basis of the business run by Asim Tufail, and on occasions, assisted by his son.”
Asim was involved in an “international” money laundering operation involving “vast” sums.
He was also convicted of blackmail after allegedly threatening others to “secure their cooperation”.
The father and son were arrested at the departure lounge of Manchester Airport on January 18, 2021.
An “extremely expensive collection of watches” was seized during subsequent searches of their luggage and the family home on Kenmore Road, Northenden, Manchester.
The pair were “avid” users of EncroChat, with Asim using the name ‘Assassin New’ and his son known as ‘Baby Assassin’.
In one message, Asim said he soon expected to be “moving between two and four million pounds a fortnight”.
Prosecutors said that the messages showed that Asim was involved in gun running.
One person on the network told him:
“I just need a hand ting to do what I need to do, these mother f****** need to understand this ain’t a joke.”
‘Assassin New’ replied: “I’ll sort.”
Junnaid “publicised” himself as a gun runner on EncroChat, with chats referring to handguns, Skorpion machine guns and grenades.
Mr Storrie added that ‘Baby Assassin’ boasted about having “a box of grenades left, presumably to sell on”.
He also claimed to have rocket-propelled grenades available.
Asim was convicted of two counts of blackmail relating to the EncroChat messages, in which issued threats “to enforce the will of other entities within the world of organised crime”.
One EncroChat user was blamed for the loss of a drugs consignment, which was seized by police during a raid.
This left a Manchester-based organised crime group “out of pocket” and a Liverpool-based group who had lost the drugs to police.
Asim was “deployed” to threaten the user into “complying… on pain of violence”. He was also involved in another incident in which another EncroChat user had fallen into debt.
Mr Storrie explained: “He demanded that he be supplied with property deeds, in lieu of the payment.”
“Assassin New told the user that ‘people get f***** up for £10k debts’.
“He also threatened him with the intervention of someone he referred to as ‘the Albanian’.”
Asim was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs, three counts of conspiring to sell or transfer a prohibited weapon, two counts of blackmail and one count of money laundering.
He was found not guilty of one count of being concerned in the production of class B drugs.
Junnaid Tufail pleaded guilty after his trial had started to one count of conspiracy to supply class A drugs and two counts of conspiring to sell or transfer a prohibited weapon.
A date for sentencing has not yet been scheduled.
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