Police seize heroin haul in taxi swoop

Apr 7 2008 By Ross Mccarthy

POLICE who stopped a taxi on the motorway seized heroin with the street value of almost £250,000, Birmingham crown court heard.

A passenger in the vehicle had earlier received the drugs package from another man in a city street.

Rahad Miah was jailed for four years by Judge Howard Morrison QC who said he accepted he had acted as a drugs mule for a one-off payment of £300.

Miah, 24, of Birdwell Road, Sheffield, had previously admitted a charge of possessing heroin with intent to supply.

Michael Burrows, prosecuting, said police keeping observations on another man saw him come off Junction 5 of the M6 and go down the Kingsbury Road where he stopped.

Moments later a taxi pulled up behind and Miah, who had booked the hire vehicle in a false name, got out and was handed a bag.

The taxi then drove off and about an hour later was stopped on the M1.

Officers who searched the vehicle recovered the bag which contained almost five kilos of heroin with a purity of between 52 and 55 per cent which had a street value of £247,500.

Mr Burrows said Miah's phone was seized and it was discovered he had made a number of calls to the man who had given him the drugs in the hours before he took possession of them.

Talbir Singh, defending, said Miah had been a courier and that what happened was amateurish in nature, the defendant having got into the taxi near his home and the exchange taking place in a relatively public area.

He said Miah had got into a desperate financial position when his business was shut.