PIA steward charged with smuggling 2.5kg heroin into UK

LONDON: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) steward has been charged following the seizure of approximately two and a half kg of heroin at Leeds Bradford International Airport.
Syed Shahrukh Shah, 31, from Pakistan, appeared at the Leeds Magistrate’s Court on Thursday and charged with the importation of a Class-A drug. He did not enter a plea and has been remanded in custody until his next court appearance at Leeds Crown Court on December 5. The drug was found inside the baggage that had arrived on a flight from Islamabad in Pakistan on Wednesday night and belonged to Mr. Shah.
Following the seizure by Border Force, the investigation and prosecution are being carried out by the National Crime Agency, a Home Office spokesman told The News. Kevin Parsons, acting assistant director for Border Force, said: “This is an excellent seizure of an extremely harmful drug and I would like to pay tribute to the vigilance and hard work of the officers involved. We will continue to work hard to keep our borders safe and crack down on drug smuggling.”
Illegal drugs are put into three different classes in the UK - A, B, and C. Of all categories, Class-A drugs are considered to be the most harmful and attract the most serious punishments and fines. Class-A drugs include heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and LSD. If found guilty by a court of law of possessing Class-A drugs, the accused could go to prison for up to seven years and fined. In extreme cases, a person found to be selling Class-A drugs could receive a life imprisonment.
The News has learnt from the Prison Services that a PIA crew Toheed Noorani Alam has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for “the importation of a Class A Controlled drug into the UK”. This year on April 12, Noorani Alam was arrested at Manchester Airport and charged with “importing heroin” with intent to supply after the UK Border Agency officials established that the heroin the woman was carrying belonged to her and not to her student son as she claimed. She was carrying half a kilo of heroin. The 59-year-old woman, on a flight from Lahore to Manchester, was carrying a laptop, which contained heroin. She was sentenced by the Manchester Crown Court.
Meanwhile, a PIA pilot Irfan Faiz Chishti is currently awaiting trial after pleading guilty to being intoxicated just before he was scheduled to fly a plane from Leeds Bradford airport to Islamabad.
Irfan Faiz was four and a half times over the legal limit allowed to fly a plane when he began making final cockpit checks. Leeds Magistrates Court has bailed him but he cannot leave Britain until the outcome of the trial. “He is due in the Leeds Crown Court soon,” his solicitor Yousuf Kamran told The News, without discussing his case any further. A source at the UK’s National Crime Agency told The News that the agency was concerned about the rise in the numbers of PIA staff involved in the smuggling of Class-A drugs into the UK.