The guilty moment a drug smuggling gang member is caught at Birmingham Airport waiting for a case load of cocaine at from Mexico
CCTV at Birmingham Airport has captured the moment that an organised crime member waited for cases of cocaine that were smuggled into the UK from Mexico
A CCTV image has shown the moment a family was caught at Birmingham Airport attempting to smuggle millions of pounds worth of cocaine into the country.
Mum Farzana Kauser, 54, headed up the Bradford-based gang, which included five of her own children, including two who were teenagers at the time of the offences.
The image shows members of the gang standing near the baggage carousel while they await a delivery of luggage that would contain cocaine smuggled from Cancun in Mexico.
Between August and November 2024, the gang would take part in at least five drug smuggling trips where they would book short one or two-night trips to Dublin or Amsterdam without taking any luggage.
Their return flights were specifically timed to coincide with the arrival of flights from Cancun, Mexico.
When they returned, instead of collecting luggage from their own flight carousel, they would proceed directly to the Cancun carousel, where they would collect suitcases full of cocaine that had been loaded unaccompanied onto the Mexican flight.
The conspiracy was uncovered on November 11, 2024, when the National Crime Agency arrested six defendants outside Birmingham Airport's arrivals area with six suitcases containing 180 kilograms of cocaine.
Kauser, along with her gang member offspring, previously pleaded guilty to importing cocaine with a wholesale value of nearly £5 million into the UK from Mexico.
Two further gang members pleaded guilty to participating in the activities of an organised crime group.
The following defendants were sentenced after pleading guilty to evading the prohibition on the importation of a controlled drug of Class A:
Farzana Kauser, jailed for 13 years and four months
Safa Noor (19 from Bradford) jailed for seven years and two months
Mohammed Aamir Shaffaq (28 from Bradford), jailed for eight years and nine months
Umair Mohammed (22 from Bradford), jailed for eight years and one month
Junaid Shaffaq (33 from Bradford), jailed for ten years and nine months
Khaled Abdulkawi (36 from Halesowen, Dudley), jailed for ten years and nine months
In addition, Hamza Saffaq and Sarah Hussain pleaded guilty to the activities of an organised crime group:
Hamza Shaffaq (18 from Bradford), to be sentenced in October (date to be set)
Sarah Hussain (27 from Bradford), two-year sentence, suspended for two years
