Family found guilty of smuggling £1.2m heroin into UK

A family was on Wednesday (10) found guilty of masterminding a £1.2 million smuggling racket that saw them bringing heroin from Pakistan to Britain.

Sultan Mahmood Butt, 37, Nibeel Saghir, 34 and Rizwan Ahmed, 34, were all found guilty of importing heroin by stashing consignments in boxing gloves and horse dentistry tools.

All three are relatives originally from Pakistan and living in the UK.

A fourth person, Denise Ellis, 46, pleaded guilty in September 2017.

They have been convicted in the Birmingham Crown Court and are due to be sentenced on August 9.

The investigation was launched in June 2015 after Border Force officers at Stansted Airport seized almost three kilos of heroin that were concealed in a surgical equipment.

Soon, Luton-based Butt was identified as the ringleader responsible for important drugs from Pakistan.

Saghir was the middleman who ensured delivery of the drugs to various addresses in Luton and Birmingham, with help from Ahmed and Ellis.

A total of 13 packages were seized at Stansted, East Midlands and Heathrow airports,p lus a parcel delivery depot. The packages seized contained 5 kg of heroin.

Jonathan Temperley, from the NCA, was quoted as saying: “Drug trafficking doesn’t always happen in one big shipment.

"This group attempted to smuggle over £1 million-worth of heroin little and often through the post, wrongly thinking they could avoid detection.

“Drug trafficking is a major source of revenue for crime groups, many of whom are involved in multiple crime types, such as modern slavery and people smuggling; adapting their methods to law enforcement responses.

"Working with Border Force and other partners we are committed to doing all we can to make sure drug smugglers are stopped and, ultimately, crime doesn’t pay.”