LONDON: A trio of drug dealers was caught after smuggling 10kg of heroin worth £4 million into the country hidden inside a suitcase.
The gang, who were also found with £100,000 worth of cocaine, have now been jailed for a total of more than 36 years.
Zahid Mahmood, 43, Bas Van der Weijden, 41, and Romeo Apostu, 44, pleaded guilty to the supply of millions of pounds of heroin and cocaine.
On Friday, the men were all handed lengthy jail sentences at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent.
Van der Weijden, from Eindhoven, Holland, was sentenced to 14 years in prison, Apostu, from Amsterdam, Holland, was jailed for 13 years and Mahmood, from Handsworth, Birmingham, was handed nine years and four months behind bars.
The men were the focus of a drugs supply investigation in March, when officers saw Mahmood loading a VW Polo onto a recovery vehicle in Northamptonshire.
Later that day, he was spotted again in Gravesend, south east London, meeting with Van der Weijden and unloading a suitcase from another car – the case was then put into the boot of the Polo.
Officers quickly intercepted the recovery truck and found 10 kilos of heroin, both men were then arrested.
Detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate found that Van der Weijden had been travelling back and forth from England and Amsterdam with Apostu.
The pair were also regularly booking hotels together in the Gravsend area and Van der Weijden was caught on CCTV buying the suitcases in which the drugs were found.
After officers searched the Dutchman, they found a note, leading them to a nearby address, which they then attended.
On arrival officers found a delivery driver trying to find the same address to collect some items to transport to Holland. Enquiries with the freight company showed that they had performed 29 collections of this nature over a one year period.
Officers executed a warrant at the lock-up and found pallets of car batteries.
Over 40 of the battery packs had been unboxed and stacked against a wall. They had been modified, with the main components being removed and a lead-lined hide created which was capable of holding around a one kilo package of drugs.
All three men were charged with supply of heroin and cocaine. The heroin had a street value of approximately £4 million, and the cocaine was worth around £100,000.
His Honour Judge Smith described the scheme as an ‘organised, professional and on-going enterprise’, with a ‘relatively ingenious importation method’.
