Drug Duo’s Million-Pound Cocaine and Heroin Plot Busted
Denis Xhelili, 38, teamed up with Sulaiman Bawa, 53, to smuggle enormous quantities of cocaine and heroin into the UK. Bawa ran a cargo firm, Airport Cargo Care, in Feltham, London, which they intended to use as a front to import drugs via air freight from South America, South Asia, and the Middle East.
Hollow Pallets Packed with £361 Million of Drugs
Xhelili’s overseas contacts prepared to stash the drugs inside hollowed-out pallets. These shipments would be received by Bawa’s company, masking the illegal cargo. Court evidence from their 2022 trial revealed they planned to import 3,058kg of cocaine and 2,357kg of heroin.
If broken down and sold on the streets, these drugs could have been worth over £361 million.
Encrypted Chats Foil Smuggling Scheme
The pair relied on the encrypted messaging service Encrochat to coordinate their criminal operation and avoid the police. However, a major police takedown, Operation Venetic, seized Encrochat servers, exposing thousands of messages. Xhelili, known on Encrochat as ‘QUAILSTAR’, denied using the platform but incriminating evidence linked him to the device, including calendar notes and photos showing his home and distinctive orange car.
When grilled by detectives, Xhelili even claimed he couldn’t read or write English—yet his seized phone was set to English.
Caught by a Light Shade and Locked Up
Bawa, who went by ‘PARKPOINT’ on Encrochat, ran a customs clearance business near Heathrow Airport. His downfall came when police matched a reflective photo of a unique light shade on Encrochat to a lamp in his own bedroom.
In April, Bawa was jailed for seven-and-a-half years. Xhelili received a tougher sentence of 10 years in prison, plus another 10 years on licence, at Chichester Crown Court.
