Smuggler’s stroll through airport with £900k of heroin
THIS is the moment a brazen drug smuggler calmly walks through an airport carrying 18 kilos of high-strength heroin in his baggage – worth an estimated £900,000.
Mohammed Uzair Rashid, 35, from Oldham, was stopped by Border Force officers for a search. They found packages of heroin inside a suitcase he had checked in and collected on arrival from Pakistan at Birmingham Airport.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said its forensic experts found that the packages contained heroin with a purity of between 66 and 71 per cent.
Rashid has now been jailed for nine years. The NCA said he pleaded guilty to class A drug importation offences and was sentenced yesterday at Birmingham Crown Court.
Rashid was stopped after he arrived into the airport on a flight from Sialkot in Pakistan, via Dubai, in November 2021. CCTV camera images have been revealed which capture him walking through the airport with his luggage.
The NCA said Rashid claimed the bags were not his and then that the packages had been planted inside. But a spokesman said in a statement after he was jailed: “NCA officers identified that Rashid had flown out to Pakistan on September 29 on a ticket booked the same day as his travel. He claimed to have taken more than £500 savings from his benefit payments on the holiday with him.
“WhatsApp messages recovered from his phone showed he was in constant contact with someone he referred to as ‘brother’ as he passed through the airport in Pakistan. In one message he was advised to ‘remain tension free...
God will be generous’ as he walked through. NCA forensic experts found that the packages contained heroin between 66 and 71 per cent pure, with a street value in excess of £900,000.
Rashid eventually pleaded guilty to class A drug importation offences.
Niall Conner, of the NCA, said: “Rashid’s story should be a cautionary one for anyone considering getting involved in drug smuggling. He might have thought he could make a bit of money on the side, but instead he is now serving a long and life-changing prison sentence.”