Heathrow Airport security guard jailed for £2m cocaine smuggling plot

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 drugs mules import 22kg of cocaine with a street value of £2m.

Wearing his security uniform, Dar, of 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 he was arrested by NCA Officers.

Williams and Waldron, of 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.

Today 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.

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."