Officials seize drugs hidden in boxing gloves at Heathrow and other airports in UK

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Britain’s crime officials have unearthed an organised operation that smuggled high-purity heroin in 13 packages of boxing gloves, equine dentistry tools, medical instruments and motorcycle gloves worth £1.2 million from Pakistan into the UK via the post.

The packages seized at Heathrow and other airports contained 5 kg of heroin. Three members of the crime group, all relatives from Pakistan now living in the UK, and a Briton have been convicted in the Birmingham Crown Court and are due to be sentenced on August 9.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said it began investigating Sultan Mahmood Butt, 37; Nibeel Saghir, 34; Rizwan Ahmed, 34, who are all relatives from Pakistan now living in the UK, and Denise Ellis, 46, from Birmingham, after officers at Stansted Airport seized almost three kilos of heroin in June 2015 hidden in Cobb elevators – a piece of surgical equipment for the spine.

NCA officers identified Luton-based Butt as the head of the crime group, responsible for organising the imports from Pakistan. Saghir was the middleman who ensured the onward delivery of the drugs to various addresses in Luton and Birmingham, with assistance from Ahmed and Ellis.

Ahmed and Ellis were arrested in 2015 after a number of the intercepted packages were found to be destined for their home addresses. The packages were seized at Stansted, East Midlands and Heathrow airports, plus a parcel delivery depot.

Jonathan Temperley of the NCA said: “Drug trafficking doesn’t always happen in one big shipment. This group attempted to smuggle over £1 million worth of heroin little and often through the post, wrongly thinking they could avoid detection”.

“Drug trafficking is a major source of revenue for crime groups, many of whom are involved in multiple crime types, such as modern slavery and people smuggling; adapting their methods to law enforcement responses,” he added.