BREAKING: Three guilty, one cleared over Broom Valley drug factory

THREE men who failed to turn up for their trial after being arrested for running a suburban meth lab have been sentenced in their absence to 27 years in jail.
Officers at the scene last May.Officers at the scene last May.
Officers at the scene last May.

The house in Broom Valley was used to produce methamphetamine — a drug more harmful than heroin or cocaine.

Mehdi Esmacpoor (38), of Farm Drive, Rawmarsh, and Mohammed Chernarli (30) of Mary Hill Road, Glasgow, were sentenced to ten years in jail after a jury took 15 minutes today to find them guilty of conspiracy to produce the class A drug. 

Nehdi Tajabidi (31), of Broom Valley Road, Rotherham, was sentenced to seven years for the same offence.

Only their co-defendant, Luliana Otaraseanu (30) of Manor Fields Close, Kimberworth, attended court for their trial last week.

She was acquitted this afternoon.

South Yorkshire Police said there was an arrest warrant out for the three men given jail terms.

The court had heard from prosecutor Mr David Gordon that the gang “produced the drug by a kind of chemical process which involved treating some base compound with further commercially available ingredients and so extracting the useful and wholly prohibited drug by filtration and evaporation”.

They made repeated purchases of acetone and toluene, commercially available  and took this back to a rented house at Broom Valley Road.  

The drug factory was shut down in May 2016 after a raid by the police, who had the defendants under surveillance “for a significant period of time” and had monitored, documented, filmed and photographed their movements and activities.

Some of the meth lab set-up found by police

Mr Gordon said methamphetamine was more harmful to users and nearby residents than heroin or cocaine because of its addictiveness and risks associated with its clandestine production.

Police closed in on the operation last May and arrested Esmacpoor, Chernarli and Ms Otaraseanu on the M6 in Cumbria.

Tajabidi was arrested the next day when police raided the Broom address, where they found large quantities of chemicals and equipment such as plastic drums, large filters and sieves which contained methamphetamine. 

 

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