Heathrow security seize suspected missile parts heading to Iran

 Heathrow border staff have seized suspected missile parts being sent to Iran, it was revealed yesterday.

At least two “O rings” – which can be used to form seals in rockets – were detected during an inspection of freight being flown out of the airport.

It was claimed they were being sent for use in the Iranian oil industry but Monique Wrench, deputy director of the UK Border Force at Heathrow, said they could also be used “for warheads and the like” and had been confiscated as part of “counter-proliferation” work carried out by her staff.

“It is a component part,” she told the Evening Standard. “It looked like it was going to an oil refinery. But the dots don’t quite join up here.”

Ms Wrench declined to say whether any arrests had taken place but an investigation is now under way by HM Revenue and Customs, which could lead to criminal action against those who sent the parts.

The sale, supply, transfer or export of missile-related goods and technology to Iran is banned under sanctions enforced by Britain and other countries.

Andrew Faulkner, a former Royal Marine from the village of Sutton St James in Lincolnshire, was jailed for two and a half years in 2010 for arms smuggling – trying to ship rifle scopes without a licence to Dubai, but found to be destined for Tehran.