Wolverhampton address raided amid international heroin smuggling probe
A Wolverhampton property has been raided by police as part of a probe into an international drug smuggling operation.
Police arrested a 46-year-old man, an Afghan national, from the address on Brown Street yesterday, on suspicion of conspiracy to import heroin.
He was interviewed and bailed.
Two other men were simultaneously arrested in Kabul, Afghanistan, in connection with the National Crime Agency investigation.
The three men are suspected of being involved in a plot to import significant amounts of heroin from Afghanistan to the UK on a regular basis. The trio are believed to be members of an organised crime group.
A number of premises were also searched in Kabul as part of the investigation, including a heroin production laboratory.
The NCA suspects the heroin was destined for county lines networks in the UK, where young and vulnerable people would be used to transport the drugs around the country.
NCA operations manager Tudor Thomas, said: "This activity is a stark warning to organised criminals involved in county lines.
"If you think you can flood our streets with potentially deadly drugs, and exploit vulnerable people in doing so, you are sorely mistaken.
"Young and vulnerable victims of the county lines trade are subjected to violence and intimidation at the hands of criminals, and it is those importing heroin into the UK that are fuelling this.
"This operation demonstrates the NCA’s unique capabilities in tackling serious organised crime from global to local level; working across international borders to stem the flow of potentially deadly drugs.
"Working alongside Afghan law enforcement, and supported by the US Drug Enforcement Agency, we believe we have been able to thwart a plot to bring large amounts of heroin into the UK."
