Heroin smugglers' 'ingenious' baby powder plot

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MORE than £13 million worth of heroin was smuggled into Hull in bottles of baby powder.

Paul Cahalin, 28, and Allan Riley, 53, have been jailed for a total of 20 years after they used the Royal Mail to smuggle heroin into the city by hiding it in baby powder bottles.

Parcels of baby powder were initially sent to Pakistan from Bradford. The powder was then replaced with heroin.

The packages were then marked "undeliverable" and sent to 18 addresses in Hull.

Prosecutor Paul Mitchell described it as a "simple yet ingenious" scheme.

Jim Jarvie, deputy director for the UK Border Agency, said: "It was a professional and sophisticated operation and was fairly unique."

Former dock worker Cahalin, of Halliwell Close, east Hull, and Riley, of Cranswick Grove, east Hull, paid home-owners £100 to accept the packages for them.

The residents were not aware of the parcel contents.

Electrician Riley then collected the packages and delivered some of them to acquaintances in Bradford.

The Honorary Recorder of Hull and the East Riding Judge Michael Mettyear said: "You two were part of a conspiracy to supply a large quantity of heroin. The scheme was simple but hugely effective."

Cahalin has been jailed for 11 years and Riley for nine years after they pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to conspiracy to supply heroin between November last year to March.

They were caught after postal workers in Hull became suspicious of the large number of similar boxes arriving from Pakistan each week.

They began keeping a list of where they were delivered to and gave it to the UK Border Agency, who opened one of the packages and discovered the drugs.

When officers searched Cahalin's home they found a list of the addresses torn up in his bin, which he had used to deliver the drugs to.

The pair used addresses across Hull, including Walton Street, west Hull, and Preston Road, east Hull.

Riley even had some parcels delivered to his neighbour and claimed the sender had got his address wrong.

Riley claimed he had borrowed money from a city loan shark after his business floundered and took part in the scheme to pay off £15,000 of debts.

His son Paul was a heroin addict and died due to his addiction in 2006.

Investigations are continuing in Pakistan and Bradford and more arrests could yet be made.

[Wessex]

One up for the posties