Air steward in court after class A drugs found in baggage at airport

Syed Shahrukh Shah, 31, was arrested by UK Border Force officials and has been charged with attempting to smuggle the class A drugs into the UK after arriving on a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight from Islamabad on Wednesday night.

Border Force officers found the heroin in bags that arrived on the flight.

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.”

The Pakistani national appeared at Leeds Magistrates’ Court yesterday but did not enter a plea.

Shah has been remanded in custody until his next court appearance at Leeds Crown Court on December 5.

Following the seizure of the drugs by the Border Force, the investigation and prosecution are being carried out by the National Crime Agency.

A spokeswoman for Leeds Bradford International Airport said: “We take incidents of this nature very seriously and we’re working with PIA as they progress with their investigations.”

Anyone with information about activity they suspect may be linked to smuggling should call the Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’s 24-hour hotline on 0800 595000.