Crime boss mum snared at Birmingham Airport after using her children to bring £14.4m worth of cocaine to the UK from Mexico
A mother who helped run an international crime gang and used her own children to smuggle millions of pounds of cocaine into the United Kingdom from Mexico has been jailed for more than 13 years.
Farzana Kauser was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday for 13 years and four months after a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.
The 54-year-old, of Waterlily Road, Bradford, worked with an unidentified accomplice in Pakistan known as ‘Uncle’ to mastermind the smuggling of cocaine from Cancun in Mexico to the UK.
She was arrested on November 11, 2024 at Birmingham Airport, but claimed she had only been there to collect her children.
The NCA said that while Kauser was there to collect her children, they were carrying 180kg of cocaine with a street value of around £14.4 million, which was due to be passed to a courier from another Organised Crime Group (OCG) and the remainder taken back to Kauser’s home and then moved on. She and her children were sentenced along with a drugs smuggler from Halesowen who was a courier for another OCG - and took posession of Kauer's cocaine.
NCA investigators showed it was the fifth time the crime group, which included Kauser’s four sons, one daughter, and daughter-in-law, had couriered high purity cocaine into Birmingham Airport between August and November 2024.
The NCA said that the offenders had booked short one or two-night trips to Amsterdam or Dublin and travelled without any luggage, timing their return flights to Birmingham to coincide with flights from Cancun in Mexico, where a corrupt insider had loaded suitcases full of drugs onto the UK-bound flight.
After landing, Kauser’s children would head to the Cancun baggage carousel, having received photographs of the suitcases from an unidentified member of the crime group, which were full of cocaine and had been loaded unaccompanied onto the Mexico flight.
The family would then walk through customs as though returning with their own bags.
Kauser pleaded guilty to importing 180 kilograms of cocaine at a previous hearing, while her four eldest children admitted their roles in the conspiracy and her youngest son and daughter-in-law pleaded guilty to participating in the activities of an organised crime group.
They were all sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, apart from her youngest son, Hamza Shaffaq, who admitted participating in the activities of an organised crime group.
The 18-year-old will be sentenced on October 7.
Kauser's other sons all admitted smuggling Class A drugs, with Umair Mohammed, 22, of Waterlily Road, Bradford, jailed for eight years and one month, Junaid Shaffaq, 33, of Waterlily Road, Bradford, jailed for 10 years and nine months and Mohammed Aamir Shaffaq, 28, of Waterlily Road, Bradford, sentenced to eight years and nine months.
Kauser's daughter Safa Noor, 19, of Waterlily Road, Bradford, admitted smuggling Class A drugs and was sentenced to seven years and two months, while her daughter-in-law, Sarah Hussain, 28, of Hollybank Road, Bradford, admitted participating in the activities of an organised crime group and was sentenced to two years, suspended for two years.
Halesowen drugs smuggler also sentenced
Finally, Khaled Abdulkawi, 36, of Alexandra Road, Halesowen, admitted smuggling Class A drugs and was sentenced to 10 years and nine months. He was not related to the family. He took possession of cocaine from Kauser’s Organised Crime Goup (OCG) and was a courier for another UK based OCG. Sentence: 10 years and nine months.
Rick Mackenzie, NCA senior investigating officer, said: “To her friends and people who thought they knew her, Farzana Kauser was a thoughtful, loving mum who seemed very normal.
“She was very well practised in her life as a high-end cocaine trafficker and she took great pains to delete any trail of evidence.
“She led this crime group with dedication and determination, often instructing her children on how to smuggle the drugs effectively and on what techniques to employ.
“She pushed her children into huge danger and has allowed their futures to be effectively destroyed.
“Her youngest son was just 17 when he was encouraged to play a major role in couriering drugs into the country, drugs that wreck countless lives across the UK in their links to violence, addiction and other crimes.
“The NCA works side by side with partners at home and abroad to combat the threat Class A drugs pose to the UK.”
Sarah Ingram from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This was a sophisticated and well-planned operation to flood the UK with high-purity cocaine worth millions of pounds.
“What makes this case particularly concerning is the family nature of the conspiracy, with a mother recruiting her own children to participate in serious organised crime.
"The defendants thought they had devised a foolproof method to import drugs, but thanks to the vigilance and thorough investigation by the National Crime Agency and our prosecution, their criminal enterprise was brought to an end.
“By taking this organised crime group out of action, large amounts of drugs have been removed from circulation and can no longer reach our streets.
"This case demonstrates the commitment of the Crown Prosecution Service and law enforcement partners to disrupting drug supply chains and bringing those involved in serious organised crime to justice."
