Birmingham Airport heroin smuggler jailed over £1m haul

Mohammed Uzair Rashid arrived at Birmingham Airport in November 2021 from Pakistan

A man who tried to smuggle heroin with an estimated street value of almost £1m through Birmingham Airport has been jailed for nine years.

Mohammed Uzair Rashid, 35, arrived into the airport with almost 18kg of "high-strength" drugs in his checked-in baggage.

He flew into the airport on a flight from Pakistan in 2021.

He admitted drug importation offences and was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court earlier.

Messages recovered from his phone showed he was in constant contact with someone in Pakistan

Rashid, originally from Oldham, Greater Manchester, had claimed the bags were not his, and then that the packages had been planted on him for the November flight, said the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The luggage was found to contain heroin of between 66% and 71% purity, with a street value in excess of £900,000, it said.

The drugs are estimated to have a street value in excess of £900,000 said the NCA

Messages recovered from his phone showed he was in constant contact via WhatsApp with someone he referred to as "Brother" as he passed through the airport in Pakistan.

In one message he was advised to "Remain tension free…God will be generous" as he walked through.

"He might have thought he could make a bit of money on the side, but instead he is now serving a long and life-changing prison sentence," said NCA operations manager Niall Conner.