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