Watch moment £22m heroin smuggler from West Midlands films advert of himself promoting the drugs

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

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A dad who smuggled £22 million worth of heroin into the UK was caught by police when he filmed a TV-style advert of himself promoting the drugs.

According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), the man from Birmingham headed up a massive drug smuggling operation which saw consignments disguised as shopping bags and sports goods.

A court heard how Arfan Mirza, 42, filmed himself in his kitchen boasting about how easy it had been to smuggle the class A drugs into the country.

A man who imported heroin with a potential street value of £22 million into the UK from Pakistan by hiding the drugs in boxes of plastic carrier bags has been jailed for 20 years.

The video acted as an advert for potential street dealers after he imported 220 kilos of heroin into the UK.

Two drugs consignments were intercepted at Heathrow Airport in February 2020.

The consignments, listed as containing ‘shopping bags’ from Pakistan, were inspected by Border Force officers and found to contain a total of 20 kilos of heroin.

NCA officers probed Mirza's phone data and business records held by courier companies.

They discovered he was behind the importation of 30 similar consignments, bringing in others to accept deliveries at their addresses.

A search of his home found parts of the carrier bags which had been used as a cover load as well as mobile phones and SIM cards, the numbers of which could be linked to contact details on the consignments.

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

During his trial, he admitted his involvement in the offences and that previous parcels had included heroin. He also admitted collecting the drugs and then forwarding them on to others involved in the supply chain.

He was convicted at Birmingham Crown Court and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

This case features in the latest episode of UK Crime Caught on Camera focusing on crime lords.

Watch the free-to-view programme on TV channel Shots! - Freeview channel 262 - and on demand now on the Shots! website here.

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