A teenager followed his gangster dad into crime and began gun running and drug dealing with his help. Junnaid Tufail, just 19 when he became involved, said he regarded his father Asim Tufail as his ‘role model’.
Asim, 52, had spent much of his son’s childhood in jail, after previously being sentenced to 14 years for drug dealing. But after his release Asim simply carried on committing crime, adding firearms trafficking and an international money laundering operation to his underworld CV.
Asim was also called in by other criminals to assist with ‘enforcement’ in underworld disputes, Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard. “Father and son were in it together, and were regarded as such by their customers,” prosecutor Tim Storrie KC said.
“He is not in court for his parenting standards,” Judge Jonathan Seely said of Asim. “It isn’t a court of morals either.”
Asim Tufail was jailed for 23 years. The judge said he was committing crime ‘at a very high level indeed’. Tufail’s son, now 23, is due to be sentenced at a later date. The pair lived on Kenmore Road in Northenden. Asim outwardly appeared to be a ‘profitable businessman’ who enjoyed ‘the trappings of wealth’, but the true source of his wealth was revealed by law enforcement hacking of the EncroChat communications network.
Mr Storrie said the anonymous usernames they sought to hide behind on the system were of ‘significance’, with Asim known as ‘Assassin New’ and his son as ‘Baby Assassin’. Prosecutors said Asim’s reputation was ‘well established’ and ‘well known’, with his son relying on his father for ‘stock’.
An image of a firearm recovered from EncroChat (Image: Northwest Regional Organised Crime Unit)
In messages on EncroChat, Junnaid boasted that he had a ‘box of grenades’ for sale as well as firearms. He was also involved in cocaine dealing.
Prosecutors told of one such gun plot in which Junnaid and his father had arranged to sell firearms to an associate for £14,000. Mr Storrie said the handover had been arranged to take place in Moston, but that on delivery it was found that the buyer had been ‘cheated’ and that the firearms were ‘fake’.
At first Asim accused his son, but Junnaid maintained he was a ‘victim’ himself and pleaded that he ‘would never make us look like tramps’. “You are my role model,” Junnaid told his father in a message. “Junnaid had to fight for his reputation as an honest broker and a dependable criminal,” Mr Storrie said. “His father Asim was deployed to resolve the upset. He feared the people with whom he had been dealing would wreak revenge.”
The pair were arrested at Manchester Airport on January 18, 2021, as they waited to board a flight to Dubai. When questioned, Asim denied any involvement in criminality.
They were both wearing Rolex watches which were seized by police, Asim’s worth £70,000 and Junnaid’s £11,000. Asim’s barrister Elouise Marshall KC said there was an ‘element of bravado’ and ‘showing off’ in his EncroChat messages. “For all his talk, very little actually took place,” she said. “His role was not as great as the Crown might like to suggest. They weren’t really ever in a position to provide firearms.”
Junnaid Tufail had no previous convictions. His barrister Khadim Al’Hassan described the defendant as a ‘Walter Mitty character’ who had been ‘taken for a ride’ himself. He said: “This offending has effectively demonstrated, I hope, that dipping his toes into the big boy league has burnt him.” Mr Al’Hassan said the defendant had experienced a ‘difficult’ childhood and had spent time in care.
Two other men were sentenced as part of the case. Danny Parmar, 42, dealt in cocaine and cannabis and was also involved in a firearm plot with Asim Tufail, EncroChat messages revealed. He was jailed for nine years.
