A HENDON man has been found guilty of masterminding a £10million drug-dealing and money-laundering network.

Behar Dika, 35, of Cheyne Walk, Hendon, was convicted yesterday, of conspiracy to supply large quantities of cocaine and money laundering, following a trial at Kingston Crown Court.

The Albanian national was one of a gang of nine which dealt the drugs from homes in Second Avenue, Hendon, Priory Gardens, Wembley, and Long Lane, Hayes, between January 2008 and October 2009.

Dika is due to be sentenced on Friday, June 25, along with Abu Tarab Raja, Jaspreet Singh Gill, Kanwaldeep Deol, Elton Dika, Xhovan Gripshi, Fabiol Beqiri, Besnik Alla and Emiljan Shega.

The gang laundered the proceeds of their drug dealing through bureaux de change in west London, and two of the men, Raja and Gill, even fraudulently set up bogus companies with illegal certificates to cover their tracks.

Despite extensive investigations by the Met Central Task Force, most of the money made from the drug deals has not been recovered.

The gang were busted on March 31 last year, when officers burst into the house in Priory Gardens, Wembley, seizing eight kilos of cocaine, a machine to separate and cut the drugs, and around £100,000 in cash.

The gang had hidden the drugs under floorboards and two layers of carpets.

Dika was the only one of the gang to deny the charges, but police said the evidence showed he was “demonstrably one of the leaders of this network”.

DCI Peter Beyer, who led the investigation, said: “This group of men went to great lengths to disguise their criminal activity.

"They set up false businesses to enable them to push millions of pounds through legitimate bureaux de changes to pay for the drugs they were dealing.

"It is only through the efforts of officers from the Central Task Force that these men have been removed from dealing any more drugs on the streets of London and the rest of the UK."