A corrupt airport security manager who helped cocaine smugglers try to bring drugs into the UK has been jailed for 16-and-a-half years, following a National Crime Agency investigation.
Junaed Dar, 47, arrived at Heathrow Airport three hours before his shift started on 14 December 2019 so he could help two drug mules import 22kg of cocaine with a street value of £2 million.
Wearing his security uniform, Dar, of Randolph Road, Slough, collected an airport vehicle and drove to Terminal 2B to meet Michael Williams, 39, and Jessica Waldron, 38, who were due to land on a flight from Bogota, Colombia.
The couple were carrying the Class A drugs in their checked-in baggage, but did not know that Colombian police, working with the NCA, had searched their bags in Bogota Airport and removed the blocks of cocaine and replaced them with blocks of wood.
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 NCA Officers arrested him.
Williams and Waldron, of Buxton Road, Hollyhall, Dudley, West Midlands, were arrested by Border Force officers working with the NCA 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, Dar was jailed at Kingston Crown Court. Alongside him were two fellow members of the organised crime 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, West Midlands, and Farquharson, of Waterside Avenue, Wednesbury, West Midlands, were both sentenced to 14-and-a-half years.
A jury convicted the trio of attempting to smuggle Class A drugs.
