Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 Source: Yorkshire Post Today ( UK ) Copyright: 2005 Johnston Press New Media Contact: http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3780 Author: Amy Binns Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) DRUG WAR CUSTOMS OFFICIALS 'OUT OF CONTROL' Five Win Appeals Over Heroin-Case 'Stings' CUSTOMS officials engaged in the war against heroin in the 1990s were so out of control that they contributed to and even funded the international drugs trade, Appeal Court judges were told yesterday. Five men, including Bradford father-of-eight Hussain Shah, had their convictions formally quashed after the court heard the facts about the relationships between drug suppliers, customs officers and paid informants. Mr Shah, now 51, was sent to prison for four years in one of a series of drug smuggling cases based on "controlled deliveries", in which Customs officers would fly a well-paid informant from Pakistan to Britain to take part in delivery of the drugs to a "customer", who would then be arrested. The informant -- sometimes a professional whistleblower with no other source of income -- would pay his drug supplier out of his reward money. He could repeat the operation later, guaranteeing income for them both. Defence lawyer James Wood QC earlier told the court: "Significant quantities of heroin were permitted to be distributed on to UK streets. "Such rewards were paid to informants that the international trade in heroin was, in part, funded. "All the while, the courts of the UK, and the authorities in Pakistan, were kept in ignorance of the true role which officers of Customs and Excise and informants were playing." Yesterday, appeal judge Lord Justice Hooper ruled that Customs and Excise in London were well aware of the dangers of someone being "set up" in this country by those involved in the supplier-informant-courier system, yet the full picture of what occurred was never disclosed in the five cases. Four of the men, including Mr Shah, have served their jail terms, and a London man was granted bail last year pending appeal. They all claimed to be wrongly accused on the basis of information from paid informants who had set them up. Mr Shah, whose family lived in Bradford and had grocery shops in the city as well as in Leeds and Huddersfield, was jailed for four years at York Crown Court in 1997. After his conviction, he claimed he had been double-crossed by Customs officers after he had helped them set up a series of "stings" in Pakistan. Three major drug-smuggling cases, involving heroin worth more than 5m, collapsed after Mr Shah offered to give inside information about the controlled delivery system to defence lawyers. Others involved in the hearing were Mohammed Ashraf Choudhery, 60, of Salford Quays, Salford, and his son, Mohammed Warris Ashraf, 37, of Cheadle, Stockport, who were were jailed for 14 and 12 years respectively at Manchester Crown Court in 1997. Sadaat Maqsood Ahmed, 49, of Ealing, west London, was jailed for 20 years at Harrow Crown Court in 1997. He was granted bail last May pending the outcome of his appeal. Jameel Akhtar, 35, was jailed for 13 years in 1997 at Birmingham Crown Court. They Will All Be Pursuing Compensation Claims Lord Justice Hooper, sitting with Mr Justice Roderick Evans and Mr Justice Pitchers, said defence lawyers argued there had been deliberate and dishonest non-disclosure by Customs officers who had allowed a substantial quantity of heroin to be released on the British market. Under official guidelines, the informant should play only a minor role, and drug liaison officers must ensure that the informant was not merely "setting others up". Officers should tell the courts they had used an informer, but in the cases before the court, the facts were not disclosed. The same suppliers and informants had been used on numerous occasions and there was evidence that some drug liaison officers knew that informants and suppliers were "working together as a team". The Criminal Cases Review Commission is believed to be examining up to 12 other convictions.