Five men have been jailed for a total of 109 years for smuggling more than £9m of heroin hidden in baby powder bottles into the UK.
The gang would use British post offices send parcels to their accomplices in Pakistan using a tracked service.
Once they arrived, the contents would be replaced with plastic bottles of Johnson's baby powder, which contained packages of heroin.
The parcels were resealed and returned to addresses in Hull and Manchester marked 'undelivered - return to sender' or similar words, Leeds Crown Court heard.
During the ten-week trial the jury heard the smuggling came to light in 2011 after staff at a Royal Mail delivery office in Hull, East Yorkshire, became suspicious at the number of such parcels arriving there.
Five were intercepted and found to contain an average of 1.9kgs of heroin, which would fetch £473,000 at street value.
Police identified from records that a further 94 packages had been delivered which with a similar content meant a street value of £8.93m.
They had been posted from 12 different post offices in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
After being found guilty at an earlier hearing to charges including conspiracy to import and supply class A drugs, as well as money laundering offenc, Khalid Mahmood, 30, from Bradford, was jailed for 25 years.
Sentencing him, Judge Christopher Batty said he was 'a main player' in the operation.
The court heard Mahmood was jailed for 51 months in 2002 for his part in the Bradford Riots and received four years in June 2008 for involvement with a firearm.
Faisal Khan, 30, (left) was jailed for 21 years after the judge described him as Mahmood's trusted ally, while Fiaz Ahmed, 31, (right) was jailed for 23 years after he was described as playing a leading role in the operation
Further evidence showed that Mahmood was the main beneficiary of the operation and lived an extravagant and opulent lifestyle.
He lived in a large detached house, paying £1,000 a month in rent, and drove a succession of expensive cars.
He was also found to have spent large sums of money in attempt to acquire an interest in a Manchester nightclub.
Faisal Khan, 30, from Bradford, was jailed for 21 years after the judge described him as Mahmood’s trusted ally having made at least two trips to Pakistan.
Khan was also found to be living beyond his means and following his arrest he was found to be in possession of a Hublot watch, valued at more than £40,000, and £120,000 in cash - which was later found to be contaminated with heroin and paracetamol - a known cutting agent used in the preparation of heroin.
Usman Bari, from Hull, (left)was jailed for 19 years. The judge said he had been the 'eyes and ears' at the Hull end of the operation, while Yasser Uddin, 31, from Bradford, was a postman and trusted friend of Mahmood, who used his knowledge of the Royal Mail system to keep tabs on the packages. He was jailed for 21 years
Fiaz Ahmed, 31, from Manchester, was jailed for 23 years after he was described as playing a leading role in the operation, dealing with the addictive heroin once it arrived in the UK.
Yasser Uddin, 31, from Bradford, was a postman and trusted friend of Mahmood, who used his knowledge of the Royal Mail system to keep tabs on the packages.
He was jailed for 21 years.
Usman Bari, from Hull, was jailed for 19 years. The judge said he had been the 'eyes and ears' at the Hull end of the operation.
All five were found guilty by the jury of conspiracy to import class A drugs, conspiracy to supply and conspiracy to launder the proceeds.
Parcels that were sent to Pakistan had their contents would be replaced with plastic bottles of Johnson's baby powder, which contained packages of heroin
The smuggling came to light in 2011 after staff at a Royal Mail delivery office in Hull, East Yorkshire, became suspicious at the number of such parcels arriving there
A sixth man, Mahmood’s brother Azhar, 28, from Bradford, was convicted on a money laundering charge and given a ten-month jail sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work.
The court heard he was under surveillance when he went to Leicester and collected £38,000 in cash.
Speaking at Leeds Crown Court on Friday, Judge Batty said: 'Heroin is a highly dangerous addictive substance.
'People who peddle it can expect long sentences,
those who import it and flood the streets of this country with it can expect to go to prison for even longer.'
Detective Inspector Gary Curnow, from West Yorkshire Police’s Regional Organised Crime Unit, said: 'This crime group based in Bradford were involved in the international trafficking of class A drugs.
'Their imprisonment demonstrates the priority and success that forces’ in the Yorkshire and Humber region, alongside partners including the Border Force, are
having in terms of tackling those involved in the higher echelons of the drugs trade.'
Phillip Holliday, of Border Force, said: “This case shows how our officers work closely with the police and others to stop people smuggling Class A drugs into the UK.'
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