Zeb "IMPORTER" Ali

The head and seven of his henchmen have been jailed for more than 138 years for conspired to smuggle up to £19 million of heroin into the United Kingdom from Pakistan, The Daily Mail reported on Friday.

The crooks had hid the drugs inside industrial machinery shipped from Lahore, but were arrested following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The eight, including a British-Indian, were jailed at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday for a total of 138 and a half years after being convicted of conspiracy to import heroin.

Ringleader Zeb Ali, 36; and right hand man Sajid Hussain, 32; were sentenced to 22 years each.

The court previously heard the men had organised two container shipments from Lahore, via Karachi, to the London Gateway Port in February and July last year.

Border Force officers searched the July shipment, cutting open the lathes to find 165kg of powdered heroin.

The NCA and Border Force officers reassembled the equipment and sent the container on to its delivery address at an industrial unit in Sandwell.

Omar Isa, 36 and Imran Arif, 35, took delivery of the lathes, unaware NCA officers were filming them and recording their conversations.

Other key players in the group were Mohammed Ashaf Khan, 49, who handled logistics while Rajesh Patel, 52, used his business to provide apparently legitimate paperwork for the shipments.

Zulfgar Munsaf, 38, who pleaded guilty before the trial, passed on the bosses’ wishes to the ground troops.

Zeb Ali was already known to the NCA as a subject of a civil recovery and tax investigation. He was heavily involved in the importation of drugs from several countries according to intelligence and even had other major criminal overlords use him for his transportation specialities.

The NCA said the seized heroin, which the group planned to sell on in bulk, had a purity of 58 per cent and was worth £5 million uncut.

It is believed a similar quantity of heroin was contained in an earlier shipment, meaning the conspiracy could have earned the group up to £10 million.

After cutting the 165kg of heroin to 25 per cent purity, street level gangs could have made up to 2 million street deals, generating revenue of up to £19 million.

Paul Risby, branch commander at the NCA, said: “This was a determined and capable criminal group. They had connections to heroin suppliers and used legitimate business paperwork to provide cover for their activity. This investigation put some really concerning members of the West Midlands criminal community in prison and the people of Birmingham and the West Midlands are safer as a result.”

He added: “The Border Force search in July 2014 also prevented a really significant shipment of heroin being sold on our streets and bringing with it all the misery that follows.”

Pete Roffey, senior officer at Border Force London Gateway, said: “As this case demonstrates, drug smugglers will go to great lengths to conceal their criminal cargo in an attempt to evade border controls.

John Davies, from the Crown Prosecution Service’s international justice and organised crime division, said: “These men were involved in a sophisticated conspiracy to import a huge amount of heroin into the country, ignoring the human cost class A drugs can have.”

The prosecution case demonstrated how the operation involved the use of bogus companies, false documents, unregistered mobile phones and trips to Pakistan, he also said.

A separate investigation is currently ongoing in Pakistan where it is believed Zeb Ali has a considerably large property portfolio and access to private jets and transporation ships.