Four men, including a Bradford minicab driver, have been jailed for a total of more than 26 years for their roles in a multi-million pound international drugs conspiracy.

Father-of-six Mazafar Iqbal was caught transporting £1m of heroin in his cab when he worked for Bradford firm Girlington Private Hire in October, 2009.

Iqbal, 41, of Toller Drive, Heaton, Bradford, was locked up for seven years and two months at Bradford Crown Court which sat until after 6pm yesterday.

Described in court as a “trusted courier”, he was arrested on the M5 taking 20 kilogrammes of heroin from West Yorkshire to Birmingham. It was heard he was caught up in a drugs ring stretching from Bradford across the north of England to Holland.

Judge Robert Bartfield told the four defendants: “You were all playing for very high stakes indeed.”

With Iqbal in the dock were father-of-seven Mohammed Arif, 39, of Hillside Avenue, Oldham; John Chapman, 30, of Hall Orchard Avenue, Wetherby; John Clark, 29, of West Lothian, Scotland, and Zahid Iqbal, 30, of Colley Street, Rochdale.

Arif, who had almost £8,000 cash and two hydraulic presses suitable for compressing heroin at his home, was locked up for nine years and four months.

Chapman was imprisoned for five years and 11 months and Clark, who left his fingerprints on heroin packages, was jailed for four years and three months.

Zahid Iqbal, said to be a “significant player” in the conspiracy, with connections in Holland, will be sentenced at a later date.

All the defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Mr Sandiford said heroin and cocaine valued at more than £2 million were seized by the police between October, 2009 and February, 2010.

On October 28, 2009, police stopped Mazafar Iqbal’s Volkswagen Transporter cab and seized £1m of heroin in compressed blocks imported to the UK from Amsterdam.

Mr Sandiford said that two months later, police swooped on two Bradford houses and seized large quantities of drugs and cash.

The operation also saw £50,000 of heroin seized from a car in Rooley Lane, Bradford.

At a house in New Cross Street, West Bowling, officers found £632,000 of heroin and cocaine valued at £12,680.

They seized almost £80,000 of cocaine and £341,000 of heroin in black bin bags in the attic of a house on Melba Road, Canterbury. More drugs were recovered from a wheelie bin at the property.

On February 26 last year, Chapman was stopped near the M62 Chain Bar roundabout with £133,440 of cocaine and £1,456 in cash.

When Arif’s home was raided, almost £8,000 was recovered from behind a mirror.

Ricky Holland, barrister for Mazafar Iqbal, said he was taking cocaine at the time and got into debt.

He had no previous convictions and felt “a very great burden of guilt”.

Judge Bartfield said: “This was wholesale dealing in Class A drugs in very substantial quantities. It was an enterprise in which you all had your separate roles to play.”

After the case, Detective Inspector Noel Devine, of West Yorkshire Police Crime Division, said: “This has been a large scale investigation and has demonstrated how police forces work across borders to tackle criminality.

“As a result, we have seized millions of pounds of Class A drugs and prevented them from reaching the streets of our local communities.

“The length of the sentences they have recieved today reflects the seriousness of the criminality they were involved in.”

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