A dad who smuggled £22 million worth of heroin into the UK from Pakistan hidden inside boxes of plastic shopping bags has been jailed for 20 years. Dopey Arfan Mirza, 42, was caught after he recorded footage of himself testing the purity of the class-A drugs in his own kitchen as part of a ‘publicity video’.
A court heard the footage acted as an advert for potential street dealers after he imported 220 kilos of heroin into the country from Pakistan. The dad-of-four headed up the the massive drug smuggling operation which saw consignments disguised as shopping bags and sports goods.
But Mirza was rumbled when two 20 kilo packages were intercepted at Heathrow Airport by Border Force officials in February 2020. An investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) found he was behind the importation of 30 similar consignments from March 2019 onwards.
Officers also probed Mirza’s phone data and business records held by courier companies and found videos on his mobile of him testing the purity of the heroin. A search of his home in Washwood Heath, Birmingham, found parts of the carrier bags which had been used as a cover load.
Mobile phones and SIM cards were also recovered and the numbers were linked to contact details on the consignments. In interviews, Mirza claimed an unknown person agreed to reduce his gambling debts by £1,000 if he allowed a parcel to be delivered to his house.
Source: wales online
