An Indian-origin crime gang leader has been sentenced to eight years and 10 months in prison by a UK court for drug trafficking and money laundering.

The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) said its officers have established that 45-year-old Raj Singh, from Surrey in south-east England, ran an organized crime group and spent 41 years buying and selling Class A drugs and weapons. Used to work with Waqas Iqbal.

Together they were preparing to send ketamine to Canada for money laundering. Singh, whose full name is Rajinder Singh Bassi, was convicted at Guildford Crown Court in February of conspiracy to supply banned substances including Class A cocaine, Class B ketamine and money laundering. He has also accepted another allegation against him. In fact, he was also involved in a pub fight, during which he kicked the leg of a police officer who was trying to stop him. He was sentenced to 16 months for causing bodily harm to a police officer.

Iqbal, on the other hand, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Friday at the same court in southern England. He had admitted in court to importing Class A drugs, conspiracy to transfer prohibited weapons and money laundering.

NCA Operations Manager Dean Wallbank said- "Iqbal and Singh both operated from within London. They also had links to other countries in Europe and elsewhere. Like other dealers, Iqbal and Singh were involved in causing serious harm to society." They are responsible for. In the guise of making money, they didn't care about how many lives were lost due to drugs and guns. NCA's priority is to protect the public from class A drugs and weapons."

The NCA nabbed the duo after they encrypted messages on the encrypted communication platform Acrochat, purporting to buy and supply Class A drugs and guns. They do not use their real names on AnchorChat but are known by their handles here. Here Singh was in the role of Salmonagent and Iqbal was in the role of Ghostshooter.