Just desserts: British-Pakistani drug mule gets life in jail

Khadija Shah was arrested at Islamabad airport in 2012 with 63.5 kg of heroin.

RAWALPINDI:

A drug court on Tuesday sent a British woman of Pakistani origin behind bars for life after finding her guilty of attempting to smuggle heroin abroad.

The Control of Narcotics Substance (CNS) Court awarded life imprisonment, to Khadija Shah, 26, from Brmingham, after she was arrested by the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) in May, 2012 while attempting to smuggle 63.5 kilo grams heroin abroad hiding in her luggage from Benazir Bhutto International Airport Islamabad (BBIA).

Shah, was travelling back to the United Kingdom with her two children when she was stopped at BBIA for a search, in which the ANF found 63.5 kg heroin concealed in her luggage.

CNS Court Special Judge Akhter Bahadur also directed her to pay Rs300,000 as a fine, otherwise 18 months will be added to her sentence. Shah denied having attempted to smuggle heroin.

The court had recorded the statements of six witnesses, five of whom were from the ANF.

According to the prosecution, the ANF team had stopped the accused for a routine check when they found the drugs concealed in her suitcases.

Defense counsel Advocate Mirza Shahzad Akbar, however, had claimed his client was innocent and had no link with the case. He claimed the ANF made a fabricated case and failed to arrest the real drug cartel, despite the fact that Shah had given their names to the investigators.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2014.