Smethwick brothers jailed over smuggling of heroin

Two Smethwick brothers were today starting prison sentences after heroin worth a quarter of a million pounds was smuggled into the country.

Mohammed Javaid and Mohammed Nadeem tricked a mother, 60, into accepting delivery of the drugs, which were hidden inside weightlifting belts.

The brothers told the woman the packages were gifts for their own mother but the six belts contained 2.7 kilos of heroin worth £250,000. They were sent from Pakistan to the family in West Bromwich.

At Birmingham Crown Court Javaid, aged 44, and Nadeem, 29, of Shenstone Road, were jailed for 12 years and six years and four months respectively.

The court heard the pair were rumbled last June by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) who collected phone data.

Mr Robert Davies, prosecuting, said the victim was the vulnerable 60-year-old mother of Javaid's ex-partner. Four weight lifting belts arrived in April 2011.

A second batch of six belts was sent from Pakistan to Heathrow Airport in June 2011, but were intercepted by the UK Border Force.

Javaid was found guilty after trial in February to importing heroin. Nadeem pleaded guilty to the same thing as well as a second cannabis charge.

As well as the sentences for importing Class A drugs, Nadeem, was also received a consecutive three-year prison sentence for the cannabis offence.

Sarah Goodall, regional head of investigations for SOCA, said the behaviour of the brothers was "despicable". "They preyed on a vulnerable elderly woman and duped her into receiving packages of heroin," she said.