A Bradford woman has been sentenced to 21 years and six months in prison after National Crime Agency officers uncovered 85kg of heroin, worth an estimated £8.5 million, hidden inside her home.
Sidrah Nosheen, 34, was found to be a key figure in an organised crime group smuggling heroin from Pakistan into the UK for nationwide distribution.
Officers arrested Nosheen at her address on Woodside Road, Wyke, in June 2024. A search revealed her back bedroom had been converted into a makeshift heroin processing unit, complete with a wallpaper pasting table, weighing scales, buckets and specialist tools.
The Class A drugs were concealed inside clothing, including leather jackets, which were delivered to the property. Nosheen removed the heroin and repackaged it into one-kilogram deal bags ready for onward supply.
Investigators also discovered boxes of plastic-wrapped clothing awaiting processing, alongside debris from packages already broken down. Mobile phone evidence revealed hundreds of messages exchanged with an accomplice in Pakistan discussing heroin supply to the UK.
Further evidence showed Nosheen had distributed multi-kilo consignments of drugs to contacts across the country and, on one occasion, collected £250,000 in cash on behalf of the crime group from a criminal associate in Bradford.
Nosheen was due to stand trial at Bradford Crown Court but changed her plea, admitting conspiracy to supply heroin and conspiracy to import heroin. She returned to court on Tuesday, 23 December, where the sentence was handed down.
Rick MacKenzie, senior investigating officer at the National Crime Agency, said Nosheen appeared to live an ordinary life, masking the scale of her criminal activity.
“She was at the centre of a plot to move huge quantities of heroin around the country,” he said. “This trade fuels addiction, serious harm and death, yet she was solely motivated by profit.
“The NCA works both in the UK and internationally to protect the public from the threat posed by Class A drugs.”
The sentence brings to a close a major investigation into a cross-border drugs network operating between Pakistan and the UK.
