A BRADFORD man who was part of a "meticulously planned operation" to distribute millions of pounds worth of heroin throughout the UK has been jailed for 12 years.

Shah Faisal, 27, of Hillam Street, Great Horton, was a member of an organised crime group that used M6 services for the delivery and collection of the drugs.

Nine members of the gang, including Faisal, were sentenced at Manchester Crown Court today to a total of 118 years and eight months.

The court was told that the heroin had a potential street value of £10 million.

After the case, Joanne Ralfs, senior investigating officer from the National Crime Agency (NCA), said: "This was a meticulously planned operation by organised criminals to distribute millions of pounds worth of heroin throughout the UK.

"The nine men sentenced today were well aware that they were engaged in serious criminality, yet such was their confidence they conducted their handovers in broad daylight, in a public motorway service station, apparently with no concern for who saw them.

"I have no doubt that through our multi-agency approach we have disrupted drug trafficking networks both here in the UK and abroad. The NCA is patient and thorough and we will use all the tools available to target and disrupt organised criminals."

Faisal pleaded guilty to the importation of class A drugs.

The court was told that Dutchman Erwin Hendriks, 45, was running the operation on the ground. He was arrested on June 26 last year after officers from the NCA and the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (TITAN) observed the coordinated delivery and collection of large quantities of heroin from a lorry at a motorway service station on the M6.

Hendriks received texts from a Dutch mobile phone confirming what type of vehicle each customer would arrive in and the number of colour-coded packages of heroin they were due to collect.

Once the customers had arrived, Hendriks instructed his trusted lieutenants, Tomasz Dylewski, 34, and Jerzy Banucha, 47, both Polish nationals, to escort them round to the lorry park to pick up the drugs, the court heard.

Over the course of two hours, a number of vehicles arrived and packages were transferred from the lorry in suitcases and sports bags. Two of the vehicles were stopped later that evening by motorway police.

Burak Gurgur, 26, and Ugur Bakac, 29, both of Stamford Road, London, were arrested after officers recovered 20 kilos of heroin from the boot of their car hidden in large plastic bags.

Yasar Ozekmecki, 26, of Cleveland Road, London, was arrested when officers found two large white sacks and a large sports bag containing 35.5 kilos of heroin in the black Hackney cab he was travelling in.

Dylewski and Banucha were arrested by NCA officers whilst still in the car park of the Lymm services. Officers recovered 20 kilos of heroin hidden in a sports bag in the boot of their car.

A third vehicle, driven by Rebecca Chin, 30, of Cookfield Close, Dunstable, was seen pulling up next to the lorry in the car park at the services and was later linked to a Metropolitan Police Service investigation. She was arrested in July 2015 and in a search of her home officers recovered 24 kilos of heroin packaged in sports bags and white sacks. This brought the total haul of class A drugs seized from the lorry to almost 100 kilos.

Chin and her partner Ali Parvez, 31, were charged with conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs and are currently awaiting sentencing.

Faisal was identified through text messages sent to Hendriks as one of three further customers who had attended the service station that day to collect packages from the lorry.

The other two were Mohammed Kabir, 29, of Howard Avenue, Slough, and Richard Bowers, 51, Carlyon Way, Liverpool. They were sentenced to ten years and eight months in prison each.

Hendriks, Gurgur, Bakac were jailed for 16 years each, Dylewski and Banucha got 13 years and four months each, and Ozekmecki received a sentence of ten years and eight months.

Gurgur and Bakac were found guilty; the rest pleaded guilty, said the NCA.