Man said £10k drug money was cash to free his brother from ISIS kidnappers

A man found with almost £10,000 of drug money in a BMW told police the cash was to pay off ISIS kidnappers who had snatched his brother.

Karwan Saleh made the claim after officers discovered more than £9,600 in the car’s spare wheel compartment after it was stopped for being uninsured.

But, after the 36-year-old and accomplice Hassan Shukur both admitted possessing criminal property, a judge said he had “no doubt” they knew they were transporting drug money.

Ian Windridge, prosecuting, said police stopped the BMW as it headed north on the M5 in Gloucestershire in May 2015.

Shukur, who was driving, was known to Warwickshire Police and the money was found in a search, along with part of a hydraulic drugs press which held traces of cocaine.

He told police he did not have a bank account, so always kept his life savings with him, adding he had a gambling addiction and had recently sold a car.

Source: Birmingham Mail