Pressure cooker gang given lengthy jail terms after 1.5kg of heroin smuggled into country
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A gang which imported 1.5kg of heroin with an estimated street value of more than £280,000 hidden inside the walls of a pressure cooker has been handed long prison sentences.
The parcel was intercepted by customs officials on 24 July, 2023, and the drugs removed, before it was allowed to be delivered on to its final address - a business on Formans Road, Sparkhill.
It was picked up by Abid Iqbal, who was then arrested along with associates Fasheeh Ahmed and Muhammad Awais.
In a search of a flat linked to the gang on Stratford Road, they found nearly half a kilo of heroin along with cutting agents, along with £15,000 in cash and several phones.
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, aged 58, of no fixed address, admitted importation of heroin, possession with intent to supply heroin, and possession of criminal property in relation to the £15,000 in cash.
Muhammed Awais, aged 27, of no fixed address, was convicted of the same offences, as was Faseeh Ahmed, aged 24, of Thornhill Road, Birmingham.
Iqbal and Awais were tried and convicted in their absence after failing to answer their court bail.
They were given jail sentences of 11 years each in June at Birmingham Crown Court, and efforts to arrest them so that they can serve their sentences continue.
Last Friday (10 October) at Birmingham Crown Court, Ahmed was jailed for eight years.
DC 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."
We’re relentless in our pursuit of those involved in serious and organised crime in the West Midlands.
Investigators work 24/7 to disrupt those involved guns, drugs, money laundering and exploitation under Operation Target.