73-year-old man who tried to smuggle £100,000 worth of heroin into the UK through Heathrow Airport has been jailed for five years.
David Pryor, of Priory Road, Wellingborough, was arrested by UK Border Agency officers on September 5 last year after he arrived at Terminal 5 on a flight from Tanzania.
Following a search, about 4kg of the drug was found concealed in baskets which he was carrying in his dark green suitcase.
Officers examined the three unusually-heavy woven baskets and found heroin concealed within the weave. In total, the drugs had an estimated street value of about £100,000.
Pryor was jailed at Isleworth Crown Court yesterday after he had pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to import a Class A drug at an earlier hearing.
He was also banned from travelling anywhere outside the UK for two years after the completion of his sentence.
When he was first questioned, Pryor claimed he worked for a law firm and had been to the Tanzanian capital Dar Es Salaam to take a witness statement.
Before entering his later guilty plea, he had claimed that the baskets had been given to him as a gift by the cousin of the witness he had been to visit and that he had no idea the heroin had been hidden inside.
Commenting on Pryor’s age, assistant director Peter Avery of the UK Border Agency’s Criminal and Financial Investigations unit said: “There is simply no such thing as a typical drugs smuggler.
“Anyone, whatever their age or background, can be tempted to participate in this awful trade.”
