Father faces jail for smuggling drugs hidden in cricket balls

A MAN who tried to smuggle heroin into Britain inside cricket balls has been caught out.

Liaqat Ali, 26, was arrested by police last July after an undercover officer posing as a delivery man dropped off a “substitute” package at his family home in Lynton Avenue, Bradford.

The city’s crown court heard yesterday that the original package containing 339 grammes of heroin hidden inside about two dozen cricket balls had been intercepted by Customs officials at Heathrow Airport.

Following Ali’s arrest police found a key to another property owned by him in Beaumont Road, Bradford.

When those premises were searched officers found further cricket balls which had been cut open plus the remains of table tennis balls which had been filled with heroin and put inside the hollowed out cricket balls.

Prosecutor Ken Green said a further 373 grammes of heroin was also recovered from Beaumont Road.

In total the heroin seized by officers was said to have been worth about 36,000.

Ali, a married father-of- three, admitted two heroin smuggling charges, but he denied being a major player in the operation.

But after hearing evidence Judge Jonathon Durham Hall QC concluded that Ali was not simply a “stooge” in the operation and warned him that he faces a significant prison term for his enthusiastic involvement in an international drugs supply conspiracy.

Ali was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on March 23.