Naji Sharifi Zindashti, described as a ‘narco terrorist’, is suspected of supplying the Hackney Bombers with heroin while masterminding a string of murders including a Brit
An Iranian drug lord wanted by the FBI over claims of state-sponsored assassinations is accused of flooding the UK with heroin, a Mirror investigation can reveal.
Naji Sharifi Zindashti is suspected of masterminding a string of murders of critics of his country’s regime, including British citizen Saeed Karimian. Described by FBI agents as a “narco-trafficker”, he is said to be the main drugs supplier of East London gang the Hackney Bombers who are in a feud with rivals the Tottenham Turks.
The 18-stone kingpin, known as “Big Guy”, is an associate of Ibrahim Kadir Aslan who has had three relatives murdered in London and Turkey as part of the gang war.
Aslan, 40, posted a chilling message last July hours after Tottenham Turks gangster Izzet Eren was shot in Moldova. Below popping champagne corks emojis, he warned: “If you are my friend you stay alive, if you are my enemy you will be f****d.”
The Mirror travelled to Moldova’s capital Chisinau to investigate the shocking background to the violence. Detective Radu Darii has spent the last year uncovering the alleged global links to Eren’s murder, which includes a drive-by attack last May on a restaurant in Dalston, East London, that left a girl of nine fighting for her life.
Mr Darii, head of Moldova’s homicide and serious crime department, said: “It soon became apparent to me that we were dealing with individuals linked to mafia groups across the world who are involved in large scale heroin trafficking and extreme violence. There was also a possible link to the shooting in London where a girl was badly hurt.”
Aslan’s involvement in the violence can be traced back to 2003 when, at 21, he tried to shoot dead a Turkish man at a petrol station in Tottenham, North London. He was jailed for 13 years for attempted murder alongside Bombers founder Abdullah Baybasin.
Cafer Aslan, 54, believed to have been Aslan’s older brother, was shot dead in Enfield, North London, in August 2017. The following February, Aslan’s nephew Bulent Kabala, 41, was hit by a blue Ford Transit while driving in nearby Cockfosters and shot four times. Another linked murder was that of Bulent’s brother Ilhan, who was shot dead outside a bar in Bodrum, Turkey, in 2014.
Scotland Yard told in 2020 how they believed the motive for all three of the murders lay within the victims’ community. Det Chief Insp Noel McHugh said: “While the gunmen were not the same, it cannot be a coincidence that all three men were murdered within a few years of each other.”
Sources claim Turkish police were told in 2014 Eren had come from London to kill Aslan but had murdered his nephew instead when he could not find his original target. Aslan had apparently been tipped off and fled four days before the shooting .
The insider said: “As far as I understand, the Turkish authorities intercepted a communication saying that Ibrahim would be killed and granted him protection.”
The three murders came after Eren’s brother Kemel “No Fingers” Eren was shot and paralysed in Elbistan, Turkey, in 2012. Zafer Eren, believed to be another of Izzet’s brothers, was killed a year later.
Aslan and Zindashti were charged in 2017 with the murder of lawyer Kudbedin Kaya in Istanbul but cleared. He represented a rival gangster suspected of murdering Zindashti’s daughter as part of a vendetta over lost drugs.
Aslan denied involvement and told the court: “I am a victim. I run nightclubs in Bodrum. I know Naji Zindashti, he is a blessing for Bodrum. He used to distribute 100 euros to everyone. Everyone loved and respected him because he’s giving money away. A man who likes to have fun.”
Zindashti, described as a “narco terrorist”, hails from the Kurdish city of Urmia close to the Turkish border. He is said to have fled Iran for Istanbul after killing a prison guard and escaping from custody when he was being held for drug offences.
Zindashti is now on the FBI’s most wanted list over allegations he hired Hells Angels over an encrypted phone network to murder an Iranian defector in the US.
He is now on the FBI’s most wanted list over allegations he hired Hells Angels to murder an Iranian defector in the US. The agency said a “federal arrest warrant was issued for Zindashti” in December. His cartel, known as the “Friends’ Club”, has reportedly flooded Europe with heroin from Afghanistan over the past decade, with the help of the Iranian security services.
The Club is said to comprise of officials and high-ranking members of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and politicians. Zindashti was also arrested in Turkey on suspicion of the 2017 murder of Briton Mr Karimian, 45, in Istanbul.
Mr Karimian had previously been tried in absentia by a Tehran court and sentenced to six years in jail for spreading propaganda against Iran’s regime. Zindashti was later released without charge. He is believed to now be back in Iran.