Drug offences
Conspiracy, importation and supply, including the cases built on encrypted phone evidence.
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What this covers
- Conspiracy to supply class A and class B drugs
- Importation, including commercial quantities
- Production and cultivation
- County lines allegations
- Cases built on EncroChat and other encrypted handset material
What actually happens
- The attribution
- In an encrypted-handset case the prosecution has to prove the handle belonged to the defendant. That is done by circumstance: what the user said about themselves, where the phone was, what else happened that day.
- Admissibility
- Whether the material was lawfully obtained and whether it can be put before a jury has been argued all the way to the Court of Appeal. The answers are now authority, and they decide cases.
- Role
- The sentencing guideline turns on leading, significant or lesser role and on the quantity. Moving a defendant one step down the guideline is often worth more than anything else available.
Cases
As his chambers describes them.
R v WN2024
conspiracy to supply class A drugs. Imran identified that the investigation/prosecution appears to have inadvertently breached the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. Consequently, the class A charges were dropped.
Operation After2023
multinational serious conspiracy to supply hundreds of kilos of class a drug drugs.
Operation Ninian2023
multinational conspiracy to supply hundreds of kilos of class A drugs and possession of firearms.
Operation Rockrose2023
conspiracy to supply class A drugs with the added feature of supply of a firearm to commit a gangland execution.
Operation Embossed2022
Representing the lead defendant in the leading Encrochat (Operation Venetic) case. Technical and involved admissibility arguments pursued all the way to the Court of Appeal, the resulting judgment is a leading authority.
Operation Vulpine2021
13 defendant conspiracy to produce cannabis at two enormous industrial premises.
Operation Venetic2020
Serious multi-kilo class A drugs conspiracy prosecution arising from the wider Operation Venetic.
Operation Gamber2018
A dozen defendants engaged in the multi-kilo supply of cocaine and heroin in the North West and Stoke areas.
Operation Intruder2018
Multi-defendant, multi-kilo supply of class A drugs in the West Midlands.
Operation Rockhopper 22018
Multi-kilo, multi-defendant conspiracy to supply cocaine in the West Country.
R v JMF2018
Exporting class A drugs to the U.A.E.
Operation Hoisin2017
Organised Crime Group cultivating and importing vast quantities of cannabis.
Operation Kellington2017
Conspiracy to supply commercial quantities of Heroin and Cocaine. Over a million pounds worth of drugs recovered.
Operation Wingpond2017
Police Inspector stealing huge quantities of drugs from a police property store he was tasked with supervising.
Operation Quentin2016
Ten-defendant conspiracy to supply multi-kilos of cocaine from Liverpool to the Midlands and West Country. This defendant was the only one to be acquitted.
Operation Airdrie2015
Ten-defendant conspiracy to produce and supply industrial quantities of adulterant to ‘bash’ drugs. Indictment successfully stayed as an abuse five weeks in to trial.
Operation Alamos2014
Successfully defended one of nineteen defendants in this complex conspiracy to import and supply class A drugs.
Operation Exbridge2014
Successfully defended one of ten defendants in this wide-ranging conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Operation Trooper2014
Successfully applied to dismiss all charges against the lead defendant in a serious conspiracy to supply class A drugs. The five co-defendants had already pleaded guilty.
Operation Lennon2013
Twenty-defendant multi-national conspiracy to import the party drug ‘M-cat’ in industrial quantities.
Operation Yates2013
Multi-defendant 160kg Heroin importation utilising the postal system.
Operation Bionic2011
Importation of tons of cutting agents , one of the first prosecution under section 46 of the serious crime act 2007 (encourage or assist an offence).
Operation Zambezi2011
Ten-defendant conspiracy to supply class A drugs and money laundering. The principal defendant was a schoolteacher who was convicted and sentenced to 21 years. My client was acquitted following a three month trial.
Operation Folkestone2010
Ten-defendant drugs and money laundering conspiracy. VHCC prosecuted by leading and junior counsel. Defendant acquitted.
Taken from the case list his chambers publishes. Not all of the cases Imran Shafi KC has been involved in are set out on this site, for various reasons including confidentiality.
What Imran does about it
He runs the attribution and admissibility arguments, and where the evidence is what it is, he fights the role and the quantity, which is where the sentence actually comes from.
His experience in these cases
Imran Shafi KC has years of experience in the defence of serious drug offences, including large-scale conspiracies involving Class A drugs, county lines operations, organised crime groups and allegations of industrial level supply. Having appeared in numerous high-profile and complex prosecutions, he brings a detailed understanding of both the evidential and strategic issues that arise in major drug cases.
He is particularly recognised for his mastery of telecommunications evidence. Imran is excellent in the analysis and challenge of mobile telephone material, call data records, cell site evidence, communications data and digital evidence. He is adept at identifying weaknesses in the prosecution case and exposing flaws in interpretation, attribution and analysis.
Imran is equally experienced in understanding and challenging forensic evidence. He has a uniquely impressive grasp of DNA evidence and regularly works with leading experts to scrutinise scientific findings, assess evidential significance and challenge conclusions that are unsupported or overstated.
A formidable trial advocate, he has extensive expertise in challenging the admissibility of evidence in these types of case. He is particularly experienced in applications concerning unlawfully or improperly obtained material, including challenges arising under the Investigatory Powers Act and related surveillance and communications regimes. His careful and rigorous approach ensures that the prosecution is held to the highest standards of fairness and legality.
Beyond the determination of guilt or innocence, Imran has a proven ability to secure the best possible outcomes for his clients at sentence. Through detailed analysis of the facts and a thorough command of the Sentencing Guidelines, he is highly adept at placing clients within the most favourable role and culpability categories available on the evidence, frequently achieving significant reductions in sentence.
Combining meticulous preparation, technical expertise and powerful advocacy, Imran is instructed in the most serious and complex drug prosecutions, where the stakes are highest and the evidence demands rigorous scrutiny.
Regulated by the Bar Standards Board. Authorised to accept Public Access instructions. Not authorised to conduct litigation.