Three men have been arrested after smuggling £280,000 worth of heroin into the United Kingdom – hidden inside a pressure cooker.
The group were caught when customs officials intercepted a suspicious package being imported into the country on July 24, 2023.
Officers found the parcel contained 1.5kg of heroin, worth around £280,000, stuffed inside the walls of a pressure cooker.
After removing the drugs, officers allowed the parcel to be delivered to a business address on Formans Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham.
It was picked up by Abid Iqbal, who was then arrested along with associates Fasheeh Ahmed and Muhammad Awais.
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Police searched a flat linked to the gang on Stratford Road, where they found nearly half a kilo of heroin along with cutting agents.
A total of £15,000 in cash and several phones were also seized. Iqbal claimed he never knew what was in the parcel and had simply been paid £60 to collect it.
The combined street value of all of the heroin recovered as part of the investigation was £458,000.
Iqbal, 58, of no fixed address, admitted importation of heroin, possession with intent to supply heroin, and possession of criminal property.
Awais, 27, of no fixed address, was convicted of the same offences, as was Ahmed, 24, of Birmingham.
Iqbal and Awais were convicted in their absence after failing to answer their court bail.
They were each jailed in their absence for 11 years at Birmingham Crown Court. Police say they are still hunting the pair who have been on the run since they were sentenced in June this year.
Detective Constable Liam O’Brien, from the Regional Organised Crime Unit for the West Midlands, said: ‘This was a significant amount of heroin that would have been sold on the streets of the West Midlands, causing untold misery and fuelling the violent and exploitative drug trade.’
Earlier this year, two members of a gang were ordered to pay back more than £300,000 each after smuggling Class A drugs inside a shipment of raspberry sorbet.
William Morritt, 69, and John Madden, 51, moved 39kg of cocaine and 18kg of heroin from Belgium to England in 2017.
Police discovered the haul amongst 26 pallets of frozen raspberry yoghurt sorbet at a frozen food warehouse in Bilsthorpe, Nottinghamshire.
It was later revealed the pair made over £4.7 million from the operation.
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