Photo credit: UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA)
A father and son have been sentenced after more than £20m of heroin was discovered inside a shipping container, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has said.
The duo from Birmingham were part of an organised crime group that used a front company with a fictitious director to import pomegranate juice laced with heroin in shipping containers from Afghanistan.
A consignment of the class A drug weighing more than 420kg was recovered from a shipping container in Birmingham in May 2023. The load had a street value of £20,350,000.
Officers of the National Crime Agency were watching as two men and 11 paid workers began to unload the shipping container which contained 2.6 tonnes of pomegranate juice. The drugs had been concealed within the liquid and mixed with legitimate bottles.
The father and son were found guilty of participating in the criminal activities of an organised crime group at Birmingham Crown Court in August 2025 and were sentenced on November 21, the NCA said.
The father was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 2 years, and the son was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 2 years.
NCA Branch Commander Derek Evans said: “These men were part of an organised crime group seeking to import huge quantities of heroin into the UK, potentially generating millions of pounds of criminal profit and endangering vulnerable people across the country.
“Tackling class A drug trafficking is a priority for the NCA and we will continue to do all we can to stop those who try to import it.”
