Mustafa Zarif

Mustafa Zarif was found in a shallow grave in Nine Acre Wood near Essenden in April 1996.

He was thought to have been strangled whilst being driven to a dinner appointment on 16 December 1995.

Two Turkish men were tried twice for his murder but found not guilty. The court heard that there had also been a third man involved but that he had fled to Cyprus.

The two men tried were later convicted on Thursday 30 April 1998 of drug smuggling and given substantial sentences.

Mustafa Zarif's body was found by a dog walker in Nine Acre Wood just off of Cucumber Lane near Essenden in Hertfordshire. He said that he first noticed a red jumper sticking out of the ground and then when he looked closer saw some bones and then went off for the police.

It was heard that the body of Mustafa Zarif had been in the ground for about four months before it was found.

He had been strangled.

He was a Turkish-Cypriot and was identified by his fingerprints through the Turkish-Cypriot authorities.

The police said that the motive was not known but thought that it involved the drugs trade.

At the trial, evidence was heard from a convicted heroin dealer who claimed that the two Turkish men on trial and the third man had lured Mustafa Zarif  to his death in a car, strangled him, and then dumped him in the wood.

However, the two men on trial denied any involvement in the murder.

Mustafa Zarif was said to have come to the United Kingdom about a year before his murder and was thought to have been living on the Sandlings Estate in Wood Green at the time with the man that were later accused of his murder.

It was claimed that Mustafa Zarif had been involved in the heroin trade and that the main prosecution witness had been with him at the time he was murdered. The main prosecution witness was himself arrested shortly after Mustafa Zarif's murder and later convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin after being found with 40kg of heroin in early 1996. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment on 11 October 1996 but had his sentence reduced to 8 years on 7 May 1997.

He said that he had been present when Mustafa Zarif was murdered but had not known that the three men alleged to have killed him had had murder on their minds.

He said that on 15 December 1995 that they picked Mustafa Zarif up in a car on the pretence that they were going out for a meal and that Mustafa Zarif had been in the passenger seat and that as they were driving one of the other men put some sort of wire round Mustafa Zarif's neck and strangled him.

The three man team was described at the trial as a 'murder squad'.

He said that Mustafa Zarif was then buried in a shallow grave in the wood that had been prepared earlier.

The main prosecution witness was arrested on 2 April 1996 at some point after which he offered to give evidence in the trial against the two men alleged to have murdered Mustafa Zarif. However, the defence claimed that the man was only giving evidence in order to reduce his sentence.

Mustafa Zarif's body was found in April 1996 by a dog walker.

The two men that were tried for his murder were first arrested in August 1996.

The main prosecution witness said that the motive for the murder was that Mustafa Zarif had made threats against one of the other men and had been planning to rob him.

The two men tried for Mustafa Zarif's murder and two other men were later convicted drug smuggling which was said to have been connected with Mustafa Zarif's murder and were sentenced for a total of 87 years. One of the men, described as the Mr Big was sentenced to 26 years. The operation to arrest the men was known as Operation Baron and had resulted in the police swooping into Watford in May 1997 to arrest them. Their trial took place at Woolwich Crown Court where it was heard that their drug network had stretched from London to Scotland and had involved the supply of 400kg of heroin worth over £64m.

It was reported that the Mr Big had lived in a former council house in Francis Road, Harrow at the time.

It was reported that Operation Baron followed the earlier operation in which 44kg of heroin was found in a car in Tottenham in April 1996 for which the main prosecution witness and another man were convicted. It was reported that following the main prosecution witness arrest that he had started to detail his involvement in the drugs trade, stating that he regularly handled up to 250kg of heroin and had also been present when Mustafa Zarif was murder.

Mustafa Zarif was also referred to as Mustafa Ali.