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He was a popular, well-known face around the city, helping young men in city boxing gyms while running his established east Hull takeaway.
But father-of-one Usman Bari was living a notorious double life.
Bari, of Middleton Court, off Spring Bank, was one of five drug smugglers who “flooded” Hull’s streets with £13m of heroin – a substance that brings misery to the lives of thousands.
His crimes were uncovered in a major police sting operation that led to the five smugglers being sent down to a collective term of 109 years in 2013.
Bari, given a 19-year sentence, is not even a third of the way through his jail term and will spend a considerable length of time still behind bars.
But it was a crime that shocked the city – and the community who lived around him.
(Image: Rob Stebbing)
How gang got away with it
The scheme started in nearby West Yorkshire, in Bradford, where Bari’s accomplices would send parcels via post offices in the town to Pakistan, using a recorded or tracked service.
There, others would replace the contents with plastic bottles of Johnson’s baby powder, which had heroin packages inside, and send them back to 18 addresses in Hull, marked “undelivered – return to sender”.
Bari was the main link and “eyes and ears” between each drug gang in Bradford and Hull, which included local men, Paul Cahalin and Alan Riley.
Former dock worker Cahalin, of Halliwell Close, east Hull, and Riley, of Cranswick Grove, east Hull, paid home-owners £100 to accept the packages for them. The residents were not aware of the parcel contents.
Electrician Riley then collected the packages and delivered some of them to acquaintances in Bradford.
Prosecutor Paul Mitchell described it as a “simple yet ingenious” scheme.
Jim Jarvie, deputy director for the UK Border Agency, said: “It was a professional and sophisticated operation and was fairly unique.”
How the scheme was discovered
Postal workers in Hull became suspicious of the large number of similar boxes arriving from Pakistan each week.
They began keeping a list of where they were delivered to and gave it to the UK Border Agency in March 2011, who opened one of the packages and discovered the drugs.
(Image: Humberside Police)
When officers searched Cahalin’s home they found a list of the addresses torn up in his bin, which he had used to deliver the drugs to.
The pair used addresses across Hull, including Walton Street, west Hull, and Preston Road, east Hull.
Riley even had some parcels delivered to his neighbour and claimed the sender had got his address wrong.
Riley claimed he had borrowed money from a city loan shark after his business floundered and took part in the scheme to pay off £15,000 of debts.
His son Paul was a heroin addict and died due to his addiction in 2006.
(Image: Humberside Police)
After the arrests of Riley and Cahalin, four men from Bradford were jailed for their part in the same heroin plot.
Officers from the Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) took over the investigation and using Royal Mail records identified a further 94 packages containing around 170kg of heroin which had been brought into the UK via the postal service between October 2010 and 2011.
A “follow on” investigation by the Regional Organised Crime Unit officers during Operation Yates uncovered numerous telephone links between Bari and Cahalin.
Substantial jail sentences
Bari was was found guilty of conspiracy to import class A drugs, conspiracy to supply and conspiracy to launder the proceeds in 2013 – where he was given a 19-year prison sentence.
Judge Christopher Batty said he had heard “glowing” references of Bari, speaking of his work with young men in boxing gyms in Hull, but was satisfied of his involvement.
Sentencing Bari and four others from Bradford at the time to a collective total of 109 years, Judge Batty said: “Heroin is a highly dangerous, addictive substance.
“People who peddle it can expect long sentences. Those who import it and flood the streets of this country with it can expect to go to prison for even longer.”
Riley and Cahalin were jailed for a total of 20 years for their role in the same operation a year beforehand, in 2012.
Cahalin was jailed for 11 years and Riley for nine years after they pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to conspiracy to supply heroin.
A shocked community
Bari’s sentence shocked his community.
One man, who did not want to be named, but knew of him through the Hull Mosque and Islamic Centre, said Bari had been trying to be a better person.
He said: “He used to come here, sit quietly, say his prayers and go. I heard what he had done from his friends.
“They said he was trying to correct his mistakes and, for the past two years, had become a better person because he had a family.
“I feel sad about it and sympathy for his family.”
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