Drug Smugglers Jailed For More Than 33 Years

Friday, 20 May 2016 13:44

Three men who smuggled millions of pounds worth of heroin in to the UK hidden in furniture have been given prison sentences totalling 33 and a half years.

Investigators were called in after Port Police, Merseyside and Border Force officers searched a shipping container which arrived at Royal Seaforth Docks in Liverpool from Pakistan on 18 April 2012.

The container appeared to be loaded with household furniture but further examination found that 8kg of heroin had been concealed within boxes of tables.

The furniture was delivered to Mohammed Naiem Yaqub, 34, from Nelson, Lancashire at a storage unit in Hendon Mill on 14 May 2012. Investigators watched as Yaqub, together with Abdul Wahid, 37, also from Nelson, offloaded the furniture from the container into the storage unit.

Part of the consignment was later loaded into a hired van driven by a third man, Hafiz Akhtar, 35, from Dewsbury, who drove it to another storage unit in Leeds.

A search on both storage units recovered a further 20.51kg of heroin from the furniture, bringing the total haul to 28.51kg. If cut and sold in the UK, the drugs would have a potential likely street value of £6 million.

Yaqub pleaded guilty to being knowingly concerned in the importation of class A drugs and Wahid pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A drugs. They were sentenced to 11 and a half and 7 years respectively. Akhtar, who was found guilty on 22 March 2016 after a 3 week trial, was sentenced alongside them to 15 years.

Rob Miles, head of the NCA’s Manchester border investigation team said:

“These three men were involved in the conspiracy to import large quantities of heroin into the UK. I have no doubt that had they not been stopped, those drugs would have ended up being sold on UK streets.

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