Birmingham man jailed for smuggling heroin in carrier bags
- Published
Arfan Mirza was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday
A man who imported heroin with a potential street value of £22m into the UK hidden in boxes of plastic carrier bags has been jailed for 20 years.
Arfan Mirza, 42, from Birmingham, was found to be behind an extensive smuggling enterprise with consignments arriving from Pakistan.
It is thought he imported 220kg of heroin between 2019 and 2020, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
He was convicted of conspiring to import controlled substance in the UK.
The from Common Lane was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court.
NCA officers intercepted two of his consignments at Heathrow Airport in London in February 2020.
'Belligerently insisted'
They were listed as containing shopping bags from Pakistan, but were found to contain a total of 20kg of heroin, the agency said.
After investigating his phone data and business records with courier companies, it was discovered he was behind the importation of 30 similar consignments.
Videos found on his phone showed him handling the drugs and testing the purity, the NCA said.
Parts of the carrier bags used as a cover load, mobiles and SIM cards with numbers linked to the consignments were found at his home.
After his arrest in February 2020, Mirza told officers an unknown person agreed to reduce his gambling debts by £1,000 if he allowed a parcel to be delivered to his house, the NCA said.
"Mirza concocted a determined and sophisticated plot to smuggle huge quantities of this dangerous class A drug into the UK, starting with dummy deliveries in an attempt to ensure his efforts would be successful," said NCA operations manager Rick Mackenzie.
"At various points in his trial, Mirza has belligerently insisted this was a victimless crime, but importations like these fuel the criminal exploitation of young people through county lines as well as gang-related violence impacting communities in the UK."
