Whisper
#byefelicia
Amir Rahnama
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...containing-200k-opium-lost.html#ixzz2z6BpWzCGA drugs mule was arrested for smuggling £200,000 of opium into Britain after he complained the case carrying the drugs had got lost.
Amir Rahnama, 43, had hidden the drugs in tubs of hair cream which he then stuffed into his suitcase before boarding a flight
[...]
But his luggage was mistakenly left behind during a stop in Dubai and he was dismayed when it failed to arrive at Manchester Airport.
On arrival, he reported it missing at the missing luggage desk and filled in the necessary forms asking for it to be forwarded to the UK.
It was tracked down in Dubai and flown into Manchester's Terminal One where border police and sniffer dogs detected the opium.
They found 15 tubs of hair cream containing nearly 22lbs (10kg) of opium which officers estimated had a street value of £197,000.
Unaware he had been rumbled, Rahnama turned up to claim his suitcase, which also bore his name, and used his passport to prove it was his.
[...]
Rahnama sobbed in the dock as an interpreter told him the judge at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court had sentenced him to six years in jail.
The court heard Rahnama initially told police officers he had been smuggling the drugs to pay for cancer treatment for his sick wife.
But he later changed his story and admitted he had been acting as a courier or 'drug mule' for drug bosses but didn't realise Duncan Wilcock, prosecuting, said: 'He said he knew it was illegal and he was selling it to pay for medical care for his wife in Iran.
[...]
Robert Mann, defending, said Rahnama was of Iranian heritage and first came to the UK to claim asylum after being jailed there as a political prisoner.
He held a regular job in Bolton and Wigan for a number of years and when the government in Iran changed he returned where he worked in a family business importing televisions.
[....]
The court heard Rahnama had claimed that he turned to drug trafficking when his wife got bone cancer while pregnant and he could no longer afford the costly medical treatment.
Judge Mushtaq Khokhar observed that while there was no medical evidence to back up the claims, he accepted his crime was designed to raise money to help his wife.
[...]
'They cause considerable damage in society. Those who are addicted to drugs, in order to fund their habit that can't be legitimately funded, commit crimes. If you had not been a mere courier the sentence would have been far longer.'