Family of drug dealers who ran empire in Peterborough found with £100k luxury items

A family of drug dealers was found with luxury items worth more than £100k - including Rolex watches, a Louis Vuitton handbag, Chanel jewellery and a Mercedes.

Xhejni Mucaj, 31, together with his wife, father and sister, ran a drugs business in Peterborough, which brought in hundreds of thousands of pounds over several years.

The family were caught in 2020 when one of their "runners" was found with seven bags of cannabis and 39 bags of cocaine in his car on the A47 in the city.

Authorities later confiscated Mucaj's two Rolex watches worth £11,000 each, a Rolex watch strap worth £700 and a personal number plate worth £4,000.

He also had more than £53,000 in cash and £20,000 in his bank account.

His wife - Christiana Sopikou, 25 - was found with luxury items worth more than £19,000, including Chanel earrings, a Louis Vuitton handbag and a Mercedes.

Detectives also discovered a bank account used by the family, found to have had almost £250,000 turnover between December 2018 and February 2021 – £200,000 was attributed to drugs payments.

Mucaj was arrested at his home in Hartley Avenue, Fengate, along with his wife and 27-year-old sister Sabina in March 2021.

His 63-year-old father, Bahri Mucaj, was arrested in a flat in Viersen Platz - where £50,000 in cash and up to £50,000 worth of cocaine was discovered.

The family has been ordered to pay more than £100,000 from profits of their illicit gains.

The husband and wife admitted their crimes. Sister Sabina and father Bahri denied them but were found guilty in a trial at Peterborough Crown Court in November 2021.

All four have been jailed for at least six years.

Det Con Andy Macdonald of Cambridgeshire Police said: “This was a long and complex investigation to uncover the Mucaj family’s criminal business which turned over a lot of money in a short period of time.

“Through many, many hours of investigation, we managed to take out a significant drugs line in Peterborough and put those behind it in prison for a considerable amount of time, as well as stripping them of their financial gains.”

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