Ijaz Rahim, 25, studying for a management diploma at Yorkshire College in Manningham Lane, was desperate to raise cash to pay his second year fees, Bradford Crown Court heard.Undercover officers intercepted the package of heroin and substituted the drug for sugar and flour before putting the parcel into his hands.Rahim pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to importing the class A drug from Pakistan.The student, whom the court was told to be of "impeccable character", was sentenced to six years and eight months in jail.The court heard he fell prey in a moment of weakness to accepting delivery of the heroin, with a street value of up to £90,000.Prosecutor Tom Storey said the Serious Organised Crime Agency intercepted the parcel after it arrived in the country on November 23 last year. It was addressed to a property in Hollins Street, Girlington, Bradford.Officers replaced 16 packages of heroin in the parcel with a mixture of sugar and flour.The 4.41 kilograms of heroin seized had a 62 per cent purity.An undercover officer delivered the package and Rahim answered the door and took it, Mr Storey said.Rahim, of Hanover Square, Manningham, was also linked to a property in Northampton Street, Bradford, the court heard.Before the delivery, Rahim received a text message alerting him to details of four parcels, it was alleged.But Mr Storey stressed there was no evidence Rahim received any other drugs consignments.He said another package of heroin was delivered to an address in Thursby Street, Barkerend, Bradford.A test purchase officer took it to the door after that delivery was also intercepted.Mr Storey said the Serious Organised Crime Agency took over the inquiry from West Yorkshire Police."The Crown says it is part and parcel of a wider picture," he told the court.Judge Roger Scott said: "I call it a conspiracy because that is in essence what it is."Nick de Lapoer, Rahim's barrister, said the student was having difficulty paying his fees while on an educational visa.He worked at a Bradford takeaway called Posh Nosh to boost his income but, said Mr de Lapoer, he borrowed cash from a man and "accepts he knew he was to be involved in a conspiracy"."He found himself impecunious and in the financial power of someone else and he was weak," he added.Mr de Lapoer conceded Rahim prevaricated with the police and his probation officer."He is a young man who found himself in a terrible position facing a very lengthy term of imprisonment," he said.Judge Scott said although it may seem a "mundane" way to smuggle drugs into the UK, very many items arrived in packages from Pakistan.The judge said the heroin had a street value of between £60,000 and £90,000."We are awash with cocaine and heroin in West Yorkshire, as they are in other parts of the world, and courts must send a message out that drug crime is not worth it," he said.The judge said Rahim was "at the end of the line" of the chain."In other areas, you would be described as a mug, but even mugs caught importing heroin get sent to custody for a long time," Judge Scott said.
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