14-05-2025
Video shows dramatic moment cops use chainsaw to break through drug dealer's door
Dramatic bodycam footage shows Asrar Rafiq with his hands above his head after police cut through his door in an operation involving firearms officers at a property in Aston
The moment a drug dealer came face to face with a chainsaw as armed police broke through door has been caught on camera.
The dramatic bodycam footage shows Asrar Rafiq with his hands above his head after police cut through his door in an operation involving firearms officers in June 2020 at a property in Aston.
Rafiq was later sentenced to more than 18 years in prison following an international operation which had cracked the EncroChat messaging service used by organised criminals.
The 35-year-old had boasted about the hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash which he made through drug deals, while listing various weapons including AK-47s and Uzis which he claimed he could source for other criminals.
Asrar Rafiq
Described as a leading member of the notorious Bordesley Green gang, Rafiq was one of 12 people given a gang injunction in 2014.
But his criminality continued, and a major investigation by the Regional Organised Crime Unit for the West Midlands (ROCUWM) established that he used 13 different phone numbers in an effort to evade detection. CCTV caught him using his phones while working out a local gym.
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He was later caught when police managed to hack into the encrypted global communication service used exclusively by criminals on mobile phones.
Criminals had been using the app to message each other in what they thought was a secure chat.
There were 60,000 users worldwide and around 10,000 users in the UK who used it to coordinate and plan the distribution of illicit commodities, engage in money laundering and in plotting to kill rival criminals.
However, unbeknown to users, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the police monitored their every move in the aftermath of the cracking under the nationwide Operation Venetic.
According to the NCA who played a key role in analysing the intercepted data resulting in thousands of arrests, Rafiq was one of the users of the app and went by the name 'Wisehorse'.
He engaged in what he thought were secret conversations with other criminals to organise the supply of massive amounts of heroin and cocaine.
Rafiq had tried to claim the messages were 'just bravado and that he was trying to big himself up to other drug dealers', said DCI Peter Cooke who described the claims as 'fanciful'.
'He was clearly a significant player in the criminal underworld of firearms and drug dealing, which causes so much misery on the streets of the West Midlands and beyond,' Cooke added.
'This result shows that while Operation Venetic was launched five years ago, the fallout for those involved in serious and organised crime continues to this day.'
Rafiq eventually pleaded guilty to encouraging or assisting with the sourcing, advertising and sale of prohibited weapons and ammunition, and being concerned in the supply of cocaine and heroin.
Rafiq, of no fixed address, was jailed for 18 years and six months at Birmingham Crown Court last Thursday, and was sentenced on the basis that he had or supplied 28kg of heroin and cocaine during a short period of just three months.
DCI Peter Cooke added: 'This result shows that while Operation Venetic was launched five years ago, the fallout for those involved in serious and organised crime continues to this day.'
'The success is part of Operation Target, our 24/7 mission to disrupt and arrest those involved in serious and organised crime in the West Midlands.
'Those involved in guns, drugs, money laundering, exploitation are all in our sights.'
