An Army veteran jailed for 20 years after being linked to a £3 million drugs bust has been ordered to pay back just £11. Roy Evans, who saw action in several tours including in Afghanistan, acted as a ‘lieutenant’ to a Dubai based member of an organised crime gang.
Police also discovered two fearsome guns at Evans' home in Stockport, weapons his alleged accomplice described as 'bad boy artillery'. The gang was foiled by Border Force officers after trying to import 50 blocks of heroin, seven blocks of cocaine and a block of cannabis with a street value of £3.4 million into the UK.
Now a Proceeds of Crime hearing, aimed at clawing back some of his ill-gotten gains, has been held at Manchester Crown Court. Prosecutors said Evans had benefited from crime to the tune of £749,024.07.
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But investigations by financial officers revealed he only has £11 to his name in available assets. The sum consists of £3.82 and £7.52 in two separate bank accounts.
He was given three months to pay, and told he'd serve a nominal extra one day in prison if he failed to cough up. "Should you come into assets in the future then of course they could well be taken from you," Judge Hilary Manley warned Evans. Funds clawed back during Proceeds of Crime investigations are used for good causes in the community.
The drugs, which were destined to a unit on Cobden Street in Salford, were intercepted when a shipment from the Netherlands was discovered in May 2020. GMP allowed the package to be delivered and struck when it arrived.
Officers found 35-year-old David Astley opening the boxes. Also in the unit police discovered a burner phone which Astley had used to contact Evans. Evans, 35, was arrested and on his phone, police recovered dozens of voice recordings between him and Sufryn Butt, nicknamed ‘Suf’.
The court heard Butt is thought to be living in Dubai and is said to be involved in organised crime. Evans told police that he and Astley were 'best friends' and they'd reconnected after he'd left the Army. He'd recruited Astley to take delivery of the drugs, he said.
Detectives trawled through Evans' phone and found he'd been conducting online searches about firearms. At a house where he'd been living in Stockport with his partner and her four children, officers discovered a Grand Power SRO self loading pistol, with a number of rounds in the magazine, and a second pistol, a 'Bruni Gap BBM'.
In messages between Evans and Butt, Butt said: "I’m going to get a f***ing thing dropped off with you yeah… Just lock it off for us fam … bad boy artillery… bad boy artillery."
Evans of no fixed abode, was found guilty of being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of class A and B drugs, and possession of two firearms and ammunition.
In February last year, he was jailed for 20 years. Astley, 36, of Smithy Grove, Ashton-under-Lyne, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of Class A and B drugs. He was previously jailed for eight years.
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