Father & Son Team Sentenced for Importing Heroin in Juice Bottles

A father and his son have been sentenced to brief, suspended prison terms for helping a crime group to import heroin into the UK in 2023. The consignment of about 420 kilos of Afghani heroin was transported in an unusual manner: the shipper dissolved it in pomegranate juice, bottled in consumer packaging, and sent it to England in a shipping container.

The UK National Crime Agency said that the shipment was discovered by Border Force officers in a container at the port of Southampton. Some of the bottles were legitimate and uncontaminated; some were not. The liquid juice is ordinarily purple, but turns red if it contains heroin, according to NCA.

The box was then transported to an industrial site in Birmingham, and police watched it in hopes of catching the importers in the act. NCA officers arrested three suspects who showed up and began to unload the cargo of 2.6 tonnes of bottled pomegranate juice. (Hired workers were also on scene but were not ultimately charged.) A fourth suspect was later arrested at a residence in Birmingham.

"Drugs are inextricably linked with organized crime groups and the use of serious violence which can often spill over wrecking the lives of innocent victims and their families," said NCA Branch Commander Derek Evans in a statement.

Suspects Colin Bartlett, 54, and Lee Bartlett, 30, have been convicted on charges of participating in an organized crime group's activities. They were acquitted of a separate drug-smuggling charge. They received sentences of 24 months and 18 months respectively, but both sentences are suspended for a period of two years.

Two suspects - Shamut Khan, 56, and Matiullah Zamankhel, 23 - allegedly jumped bail prior to court proceedings and remain at large.