SMUGGLERS, including a man from Blackburn, who tried to import high-quality heroin with a street value of £1.9million from Islamabad hidden inside a chapati oven have been sentenced to a total of 26 years in prison.

Mohammed Aslam Khan, 61, of Ashton-under-Lyne, and Arbab Akhtar, 29, of Romney Walk, Blackburn, both admitted conspiring to import Class A drugs. Kulwinder El Assad, 40, of Tipton, was found guilty after a four-day trial at Leeds Crown Court.

Yesterday she was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Akhtar and Khan received eight and six-year jail terms.

National Crime Agency investigators used phone evidence to prove the links between the conspirators and place them at key locations in the plot.

The NCA was called in on March 26, 2014, after Border Force officers at Leeds-Bradford Airport opened an unclaimed package on a luggage carousel. Inside they discovered the oven, which contained almost 13 kilos of heroin.

A day later Khan and El Assad were arrested at the airport by the NCA when they arrived to pick up the parcel.

In interviews Khan, who had arrived on the same Islamabad flight as the parcel, said he travelled to Pakistan to visit a dying relative. El Assad told officers she didn’t know Khan and was a paid escort.

Khan’s ticket for the trip had been bought and paid for by Akhtar, who was arrested at Manchester Airport as he returned from Pakistan to the UK in July.

Akhtar claimed never to have met Khan, but phone and CCTV analysis showed he had driven to Ashton-under-Lyne to collect Khan, taken him to Blackburn to get his ticket and then dropped him off at the airport for his outbound flight.

Akhtar’s phone was in the Bradford area when Khan returned, and had been in contact with Khan’s phone and a number in Pakistan which was found on El Assad’s mobile.

NCA’s Mick Maloney said: “Had they not been stopped the heroin would have ended up being sold on UK streets.”