Two brothers in a notorious criminal group referred to as 'The Family' are fighting to hold on to a luxury house years after they were locked up.
Turkish national Mehmet Baybasin, now 59, was jailed for 30 years at Liverpool Crown Court in 2011, after plotting with a Merseyside gang to import vast quantities of cocaine from South America.
The court had heard that between 2008 and 2009 the organised crime group concocted a "sophisticated" plot to get a 40 tonne shipment of cocaine from Colombia to Britain. Much of the conspiracy was run via a telephone box on Old Hall Street in Liverpool City Centre, which the head of the Liverpool end of the conspiracy, Eldonian Village man Paul Taylor, used as his "office" to talk business with Baybasin, based in Edgware, London.
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Mehmet Baybasin, however, was not the most prolific gangster in his immediate family. His older brother, Huseyin Baybasin, is serving a life sentence in the Netherlands after convictions for drug trafficking and conspiracy to murder in 2001.
Amsterdam based Huseyin has been referred to as the "Pablo Escobar of Europe" after taking control of much of the heroin being exported from the poppy fields of Afghanistan in the 1970s. Huseyin has since claimed in media interviews he was in league with high ranking officials in the Turkish government, and is also alleged to have had links with various intelligence services and militia groups.
After Huseyin, reportedly nicknamed "The Emperor", was locked up, the family business was allegedly taken over by his brother, Abdullah Baybasin, who was confined to a wheelchair after being shot by a rival.
The brothers were reportedly so notorious in the Kurdish and Turkish communities of North London that they were referred to simply as 'The family', according to reports from the time. Courts have heard Abdullah recruited young thugs known as 'The Bombacilar' [bombers] to extort businesses in the area, who were also involved in deadly clashes with rival gangs.
In 2006, Abdullah was jailed for 20 years for the importation of heroin, although he was later freed on appeal. Despite his acquittal, a judge ruled in 2013 he should repay £700,000 in ill-gotten gains generated by his protection racket. The judge noted that Abdullah, then 52, had also been secretly recorded discussing firearms, collecting 'protection' payments, and sharing the profits of his gangland activity.
Mehmet Baybasin was not put off by the downfall of his brothers, and plotted with Taylor's firm to ship 40 tonnes of cocaine, produced in Colombia, from a port in Venezuela. The drugs were to be stashed in tins of fish or wood pellets.
Officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) listened in on calls between Taylor and Baybasin as they talked of ‘36s’ (£36,000 for a kg of cocaine) and buying ‘200 bits’ (shipments of 200kg).
They watched from afar as Taylor headed to the capital to meet Baybasin in an Elstree cafe and they looked on in astonishment as visitors to Taylor’s home – which was bugged – parked around the corner and then clambered over his back gate in the hope of not being seen.
Three times the gang tried to make the imports a success, but internal squabbles and mix-ups meant that despite hundreds of thousands of pounds changing hands the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) got in to stop them before the plot could come off. However they tried again to arrange the enormous cocaine shipment.
Baybasin acted as the gang's international connection and travelled to South America regularly for meetings with cartel representatives Ricardo Ocampo, a Colombian, and Venezuelan Javier Oponte.
Last year a High Court judge said of the plot: "This was highly organised international drug trafficking on a vast scale. The Court of Appeal endorsed the trial judge's conclusion that Mehmet Baybasin was near the top of the supply chain and distribution organisation, and was not only controlling and directing operations in London but also had international connections."
Despite the criminal convictions of the three Baybasin brothers, a legal battle is ongoing over their family home, a large detached house in the Canons Drive estate of Edgware. According to a judgment handed down this month, the property is believed to be jointly owned by four Baybasin brothers, including Huseyin, Abdullah and Mehmet, and members of their family still reside there.
According to High Court judge Mr Justice Baker, Mehmet's share in the property is worth around £330,000 as determined during a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing after his conviction.
The wrangle followed an application by Christine Bartlett, appointed an enforcement receiver for the property in earlier proceedings, to sell the house. The brothers claimed they had not been given sufficient notice about the application and asked for a delay.
However, the case is further complicated by an application by the Dutch authorities to reclaim the criminal assets of Huseyin. According to emails disclosed to the court, the Dutch Ministry of Justice appeared to have asked the British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to act for them in court proceedings, on the basis that Huseyin owned 100% of the property.
Justice Baker highlighted that the CPS appeared to have adopted two opposing conclusions when acting for the Crown in the POCA case against Mehmet, and acting as an agent for the Dutch authorities in their case against Huseyin.
He wrote in the judgment: "On the face of things, the [Dutch government's] case, advanced on its behalf to this court by the CPS, that Huseyin beneficially owns the House outright, conflicts with the CPS's case, advanced in the Crown Court as prosecutor of Mehmet, that the House is owned, in equity, by the four brothers equally, so that Mehmet in particular owns a 25% share.
"The CPS should have considered, and needs now to consider as a matter of some urgency, how, if at all, it can properly manage its separate, and seemingly conflicting, interests as prosecutor of Mehmet in the Crown Court confiscation proceedings and as agent and legal representative of the claimant in these High Court proceedings."
Judge Baker issued a stay on any attempts to sell the property until the conflicting issues could be addressed ahead of a further hearing.
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