Two men in prison for conspiring to produce Class B drugs have been ordered to pay back £234,000 at a confiscation hearing at Birmingham Crown Court on 17 May.
Shazad Zulnorain Ali, aged 32 from Walsall, was ordered to pay £118,000 and Ali Hayder Munir, also aged 32 and from Walsall, was ordered to pay £116,000.
Both were ordered to pay within six months or serve an extra two years in prison.
The men were originally sentenced in February 2011 to five and a half years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to produce class B drugs, along with a number of others.
The original convictions were part of Operation Zedoaray, an investigation carried out by Walsall detectives, with the assistance of the Economic Crime unit, into the running of industrial scale cannabis factories in the Walsall area.
Following a number of search warrants, some £60,000 in cash was seized using proceeds of crime legislation. Drugs estimated to be valued at £2,292,000 were recovered from 37 premises which were let by the same company, the proprietors of which were Ali and Munir.
Detective Inspector Neil Postin, from the Economic Crime Unit, said, “Not only were we able to successfully stop the production of drugs, but the ensuing investigation into the finances from this organised crime group has allowed us to remove the remaining profits from this crime.
“The cash will be ploughed into the Proceeds of Crime Act Fund, which is used to fund initiatives that benefit local communities.”
