Photos have revealed the dreary London flat that hid a quiet couple’s fortune made from a £700million cocaine racket.
Arti Dhir, 59, and her younger husband Kaval Raijada, 35, were both sentenced to 33 years in prison this week after they were found to have smuggled the cocaine to Australia between 2019 and 2021.
The pair laundered money through a ‘Breaking Bad’ style car wash, moved £3million in boxes and suitcases around different storage sites in the capital and hid seven gold-plated bullion bars in a punchbag at their grubby flat.
They escaped extradition over the murder of an 11-year-old boy in India and spent at least four years planning their criminal enterprise, the National Crime Agency told The Sun.
New photos have revealed the couple’s grimy flat which they used to store illegal items, featuring a grotty red carpet, stained walls and rundown furniture.
Photos have revealed the dreary London flat that hid a quiet couple’s fortune made from a £700million cocaine racket
Thousands of pounds worth of £50 notes can be seen inside a bedside table in the flat
Arti Dhir, 59, and her younger husband Kaval Raijada, 35, were both sentenced to 33 years in prison this week after they were found to be two of Britain’s biggest drug barons
Thousands of pounds worth of £50 notes can be seen inside a bedside table while another image shows the seven bullion bars laid out after being discovered.
Other photos show dozens of boxes and suitcases stashed inside a storage container in London.
Dhir and Raijada – who is more than 20 years younger than his wife – were so shameless in their crimes that they continued to make plans to smuggle drugs as they fought extradition from the UK to India, where they were suspected of planning the murder of an adopted son to bag a £150,000 insurance payout.
NCA senior investigating officer Piers Phillips said: ‘We believe they were planning this operation for a long time, potentially as far back as 2015.’
Locals in the town of Hanwell said they had no idea the ‘odd’ couple were secretly major criminals.
Rose O’Sullivan said she recalls making casual conversation with her seemingly pleasant neighbour Dhir a few years ago.
‘I was doing the gardening when she leaned out of her window at the back to say hello. She seemed like a nice and normal person,’ said Rose, aged 52.
‘I remember asking how she was and she said she was good. We talked about how nice the weather was and simple things like [that].
The couple hid seven gold-plated bullion bars in a punchbag at their grubby London flat
The pair moved £3million in boxes and suitcases around different storage lock-ups in the capital
The criminal couple transported £3million in boxes around different storage lock-ups in London
Locals in the town of Hanwell said they had no idea the ‘odd couple’ were secretly major criminals
The couple met in around 2010 when Raijada travelled from India to Britain for his studies, but instead ended up taking a job caring for Dhir’s elderly father
‘The only other time I saw her was when she was taking her bins out. She was wearing a traditional Indian dress and she said hello.’
British citizen Dhir first came to the UK as a child when many Asians left their homes in their native countries due to persecution.
The couple met in around 2010 when Raijada travelled from India to Britain for his studies, but instead ended up taking a job caring for Dhir’s elderly father. The couple were married three years later and soon created plans to get rich.
Police officers predict the criminal masterminds used the skills they learned to set up their own air cargo shipping company called Vielfy Freight Services – which they used as a cover to export £700million worth of cocaine to Australia.
