TRAIL OF TEARS

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.

- BY TOM PETTIFOR Crime Editor

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.