£22m West Midlands heroin smuggler

Videos found on the man’s phone showed him handling the drugs and testing the purity of the heroin.

Transcript

00:00Dad, who smuggled £22 million worth of heroin into the UK, was nailed by police

00:06when he filmed a TV-style advert of himself promoting the drugs.

00:14Birmingham man Arfan Mirza ran a multi-million pound heroin smuggling operation through

00:19carrier bag shipments. According to the National Crime Agency, he imported heroin with a potential

00:25street value of £22 million into the UK from Pakistan. The dad of four headed up a massive

00:32drug smuggling operation which saw consignments disguised as shopping bags and sports goods.

00:41A court heard how he filmed himself in his kitchen boasting about how easy it had been

00:46to smuggle the class-A drugs into the country. The video acted as an advert for potential street

00:52dealers after he imported 220 kilos of heroin into the UK. Two drug consignments were intercepted

01:02at Heathrow airport in February 2020. The consignments listed as containing shopping

01:08bags from Pakistan were inspected by border force officers and found to contain a total

01:13of 20 kilos worth of heroin. NCA officers probed Mirza's phone data and business records

01:22held by courier companies. They discovered he was behind the importation of 30 similar consignments

01:29bringing in others to accept deliveries at their addresses.

01:34Videos found on Mirza's phone show him handling the drugs and testing the purity of the heroin.

01:42A search of his home found parts of the carrier bags which had been used as a cover load

01:46as well as mobile phones and SIM cards, the numbers of which could be linked to contact

01:51details on the consignments. In subsequent interviews with NCA officers, Mirza claimed

02:01that an unknown person agreed to reduce his gambling debts by £1,000 if he allowed the

02:06parcel to be delivered to his house. Analysts at the NCA believe Mirza imported a total of 220 kilos

02:15of heroin between March 2019 and February 2020 with a potential street value of £22 million.

02:24Mirza was arrested in February 2020 for conspiring to import controlled substances into the UK.

02:33During his trial, Mirza admitted his involvement in the offences

02:36and that previous parcels had included heroin.

02:40He also admitted collecting the drugs and then sending them on to others involved in the supply chain.

02:47He was convicted following a trial at Birmingham Crim Court and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

02:55Judge Heidi Kubik KC described Mirza as head of the drugs operation in the UK

03:03and said he had played a pivotal role in the success of the illegal activity.

03:09She described Mirza's lack of remorse and said he had only provided a self-serving account

03:15into how he became involved.