Four charged after £1m drugs haul seized from Rochdale house
Police say they uncovered a suspected storage facility hidden inside a residential property
Last updated 5th Oct 2026
Four men have been charged after police seized an estimated £1 million worth of drugs during a series of raids in Rochdale.
Greater Manchester Police say the charges follow six warrants executed across the town on Monday 28th September, bringing a six-month investigation to a head.
Officers say one of the addresses, on Manchester Road, appeared to be an ordinary home from the outside.
Inside, they say they found vast quantities of suspected illegal drugs worth more than £1 million.
Police say the haul included a list detailing more than 100 different types of drugs, spanning Class A, B and C, with a significant proportion made up of prescription-type medication alongside bodybuilding and weight-loss drugs.
Officers also recovered more than 30 mobile phones and an estimated £60,000 in cash.
Three men have each been charged with conspiracy to supply Class A, B and C drugs, supplying medicine products, and money laundering.
They are Jalil Ahmed, 52, and Shakil Ahmed, 23, both of Twinegate, Rochdale, and Shakil Ahmed, 51, of Whittaker Lane, Rochdale.
A fourth man, 44-year-old Raja Adeel Farooq, of Kingsway, Manchester, faces the same charges plus one of conspiracy to supply a firearm.
All four appeared at Tameside Magistrates' Court on Tuesday 29th September and were remanded in custody.
They are due to next appear at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday 4th November.
Detective Inspector Rich McCorry, from the force's Serious Organised Crime Group, said:
"We believe this is a sophisticated and well-established organised crime group.
"The premises we entered today were fully equipped with security measures, laptops and large quantities of drugs, indicating what we suspect was a highly organised operation supplying drugs both online and in person to customers nationally.
"This type of criminality fuels violence, exploitation and misery in our communities, while those responsible seek to profit from it. We are determined to dismantle these networks."