A Heathrow Airport manager has been jailed for 16-and-a-half years after trying to help smugglers bring £2m worth of cocaine into Britain. Junaed Dar arrived three hours early for his shift on December 14, 2019 so he could help two drugs mules import 22kg of the Class A drug.
Wearing his security uniform, the 47-year-old collected an airport vehicle and drove to Terminal 2B to meet to meet Michael Williams, 39, and Jessica Waldron, 38, who were due to land on a flight from Bogota – the capital city of Colombia. The couple were carrying cocaine in their checked-in baggage but did not know Colombian police had searched their bags and removed the drugs.
The cocaine was replaced with blocks of wood in Bogota Airport while the National Security Agency was informed. Once the couple had retrieved their bags, Dar escorted them to the toilets where he took the bags, got in his vehicle and was about to drive away when he was arrested by NCA Officers.
Williams and Waldron, of Buxton Road, Dudley, were arrested by Border Force as they tried to leave the airport. They were each jailed for six years and eight months in 2022 having admitted attempting to import Class A drugs.
On Monday (August 4) Dar, of Randolph Road, Slough was jailed at Kingston Crown Court. Alongside him were two other members of the drug trafficking group. Ruford Davis, 55, and David Farquharson, 53, were involved in the organisation of the drug couriers’ outward and return journeys.
When the drug couriers landed, the duo both sent Waldron identical screenshots from encrypted mobile devices of instructions for meeting Dar. Davis, of Pitfield Road, Dudley, and Waterside Avenue, Wednesbury, were sentenced to 14-and-a-half years in prison.
The trio were convicted by a jury of attempting to smuggle Class A drugs.
Mark Abbott, NCA operations manager, said: “Dar committed a gross betrayal of trust by playing a crucial role in this conspiracy which started in South America and would have ended with violent street gangs in UK towns and cities.
“Organised crime groups need corrupt insiders like Dar to help move illegal commodities. As an airport security manager, he had the access and ability to move drugs so they might not be stopped.
“Heathrow Airport fully supported the operation along with Border Force and together we continue to combat the threat of Class A drugs being smuggled this way.”
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