HEROIN with a potential street value of nearly £2 million was found hidden in a chapati oven when border officials inspected an unclaimed package circulating on a luggage carousel at Leeds Bradford Airport.

Today, a group of smugglers who tried to import the consignment of high-purity heroin from Islamabad through the Yeadon airport were sentenced to a total of 26 years in prison.

Mohammed Aslam Khan, 61, from Ashton-Under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, and Arbab Akhtar, 29, of Romney Walk, Blackburn, both admitted conspiring to import Class A drugs. Kulwinder El Assad, 40, of Beaumont Close, Tipton, West Midlands, was found guilty after a four-day trial at Leeds Crown Court.

Today, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Akhtar and Khan received eight and six-year jail terms.

National Crime Agency investigators used phone evidence to prove the links between the conspirators and place them at key locations in the plot, including in the Bradford area.

The NCA was called in on March 26, 2014 after Border Force officers at Leeds Bradford Airport opened an unclaimed package on a luggage carousel.

Inside they discovered the chapati oven, which contained almost 13 kilos of heroin. If cut and sold in the UK, the drugs would have had a potential likely street value of about £1.9 million.

A day later, Khan and El Assad were arrested at the airport by the NCA when they arrived to pick up the parcel.

In interviews Khan, who had arrived on the same Islamabad flight as the parcel, said he travelled to Pakistan to visit a dying relative. El Assad told officers she didn’t know Khan and was a paid escort.

Khan’s ticket for the trip had been bought and paid for by Akhtar, who was arrested at Manchester Airport as he returned from Pakistan to the UK in July.

Akhtar claimed never to have met Khan, but phone and CCTV analysis showed he had driven to Ashton-Under-Lyne to collect Khan, taken him to Blackburn to get his ticket and then dropped him off at the airport for his outbound flight.

Akhtar’s phone was in the Bradford area on the day Khan returned, and had been in contact with Khan’s phone and a number in Pakistan, which was also found on El Assad’s mobile.

NCA senior investigating officer, Mick Maloney, said: “These three individuals were involved in an international conspiracy to source class A drugs worth almost £2 million and bring them back to the UK.

"I’ve no doubt that had they not been stopped, the heroin would have ended up being sold on UK streets.

“All three played key roles. El Assad was in touch with those they sourced the drugs from in Pakistan. Akhtar was the logistics man, who made all the travel arrangements, and was in regular contact with the others, while Khan was the courier."

Mark Robinson, assistant director for Border Force Yorkshire & Humber, said: “This case sends a strong message to the criminal gangs involved in drug smuggling.

“Border Force officers are on the frontline to stop harmful substances like heroin making it into the UK and damaging our communities."