Mosque charity cash used to fund Pakistan drugs run Published duration 13 August 2015

image copyright NCA image caption Hafiz Waris Ali and Rafakat Hussain were arrested after heroin was seized at Manchester Airport

Two men who used charity money raised by a mosque to fund a drug-running trip to Pakistan have been jailed.

Hafiz Waris Ali and Rafakat Hussain were arrested after heroin with a street value of more than £2m was found at Manchester Airport in April 2014.

Ali had travelled to Pakistan to buy the drugs under the guise of assisting in the repatriation of a dead friend.

Ali, 48, and Hussain, 29, were jailed for seven-and-a-half and seven years respectively at Manchester Crown Court.

The court heard Ali had travelled to Pakistan as part of the trip funded by a mosque in Batley, West Yorkshire.

Because their dead friend had no relatives in the UK, the trip had been paid for by worshippers.

On his return flight, Ali had hidden the heroin in his hold luggage which was subsequently lost.

image copyright NCA image caption The heroin had a potential street value of more than £2m

When it was later found customs officers discovered the drugs.

Ali and his brother-in-law Hussain were arrested when they returned to the airport to collect the baggage.

Ali, of Cardigan Close, Batley, and Hussain from Alverthorpe Road, Wakefield, both admitted conspiring to import heroin and pleaded guilty.

A third man linked to the conspiracy, Mohammed Fazil, was arrested in Pakistan on separate charges.

After the sentencing, Rob Miles, head of the National Crime Agency's Manchester border investigation team, said: "These men used the generosity of their community in an attempt to fund their drug running.