Drug gang jailed over cocaine found at airport

A GANG of drug smugglers, arrested after a woman was caught with £40,000 worth of cocaine hidden in a suitcase at Leeds Bradford Airport, has been jailed for a total of 25 years.

The plot was foiled when Portuguese national Lina Alves De Aguiar was spotted at the airport on July 19 last year and a swab on her bags showed positive for cocaine.

She was taken to Weetwood police station in Leeds where it was discovered she had 380 grammes of powder which was 53 per cent pure cocaine concealed in her luggage.

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She had arrived from Ecuador via Amsterdam having flown out from Birmingham earlier in the month.

Officers from the UK Border Agency then investigated her contacts and arrested three other men, all originally from Somalia.

De Aguiar, 34, of no fixed address and Ahmed Jumbe Darish, 27 a failed asylum seeker living in Coventry, were each jailed for five-and-a-half years after admitting conspiracy to import cocaine.

Abdullah Omary, 28, now a British citizen who was also living in Coventry, and Ahmed Farragh-Awad, 34, who was living in Leicester, were each jailed for seven-and-a-half years after a jury had previously found them guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine.

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Sentencing the four at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, Judge Sally Cahill QC said there had been an attempt to send De Aguiar to Ecuador from Birmingham previously in July but she had only got as far as Amsterdam when there were problems with her ticket.

She then returned to Birmingham and the second attempt was then made in which she successfully collected the drug in Ecuador.

She said Darish was effectively her "minder" ensuring she got to the airport, while Omary had gone to see her off "when effectively on compassionate leave from work that your girlfriend had had a miscarriage."

She rejected De Aguiar's claim that she had acted as a courier because threats had been made against her family in Portugal.

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Jason Pitter, for the woman, said she was vulnerable after being drawn into prostitution while working as a dancer and was effectively "sold" on to others who coerced her.

Welcoming the sentences Malcolm Bragg, assistant director for the UK Border Agency said the agency was committed to tackling the smuggling of illegal drugs "and will detect concealments no matter how big or small."