CORRUPTION AT THE AIRPORT: Heathrow security manager who used EncroChat for cocaine import plot jailed for 16.5 years

A corrupt "trusted" senior Heathrow Airport security manager has been jailed for 16 and a half years after he helped a south American drug network to try to smuggle cocaine worth nearly £1.7 million into Heathrow Airport.

Campus security manager Junaed Ghani Dar, 41, from Slough, was arrested at the airport's Terminal 2 after two couriers arrived with what they thought was 22kgs of the drugs on a flight from Bogota in Colombia.

Drug addict mules Michael Williams, 40, and Jessica Waldron, 39, (above and below) had been instructed by Dar, a university science graduate, through messages on the encrypted EncroChat mobile phone system.

The couple were told to pose as a couple by dressing in specific clothing for identification and by holding hands.

But unbeknown to the three, Colombian police had intercepted the drugs and swapped them with wooden blocks before the flight which landed on December 14 2019.

The British National Crime Agency (NCA) was alerted to their arrivals with officers laying in wait.

After the pair landed on flight AV120 from Bogota, they were seen by investigators to follow Dar into the toilets with two bags and exit without them.

Williams, Waldron were arrested by Border Force officers after they returned to the arrivals queue.

Dar took the holdalls containing the blocks (below) to a vehicle he had parked nearby, where he was arrested and found also to be in possession of an encrypted EncroChat mobile telephone which the authorities were unable to access.

The court heard he came into possession of the phone on October 22 2019 and it was used in the run up to the offence.

The prosecution did not establish where the drugs were destined for had they arrived.

The wholesale value of the 22kg of cocaine was £770,000, with its street value approximately £1.75 million.

Williams and Waldron pleaded guilty to being concerned with the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class A drug two days later.

The pair, both of Holly Hall, Dudley, were each sentenced to six years and eight months in prison in October 2022.

Dar denied a charge of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of goods.

The roles of two other co-defendants, Ruford Davis, 55, of Dudley and Davis Farquharson, 53, of Wednesbury, were discovered from analysis of a mobile telephone seized from Waldron.

Davis, Farquharson, and a third unidentified person, who used a telephone number saved as ‘Dougy Newer Num’, were in contact with each other and with Waldron prior to and during the trip to Colombia and, upon the couriers' arrival back at Heathrow.

Davis (above) and Farquharson (below) both sent Waldron identical screenshots of EncroChat instructions for the handover of drugs.

The court heard that Dar began working at the airport in 2007, gaining a security job in 2010, before being promoted to campus security manager in 2016.

Not long before the offence, he had qualified to drive on the "airside" of the airport, which meant he could take vehicles in and out, that were only searched on entry, not exit.

The court heard that on the day in question he came to work three hours early and was working in Terminal 2, where he ha no business to be, instead of Terminal 5.

Sentencing Dar to 16 and a half years, Judge Jonathan Davies KC said: "The plan relied upon and centred around an inside person at Heathrow. Mr Dar was a trusted campus sec manager responsible for a team of security mangers."

Addressing Dar, he said: "As we saw on CCTV you made it appear that he was rightfully there engaged and busy, as if you were doing your leg work. You wore a tabard with Heathrow Security on it but your duties were to work in Terminal 5 and you had no business in Terminal 2 and your role had no passenger facing element."

The court heard that Davis and Farquharson were involved in directing the couriers in respect of the trip and on the day of their arrival.

Davis also supplied just over £3,000 for tickets, passports and a hotel in Colombia.

Bother were charged with conspiracy to evade the prohibition on the importation of a controlled drug of class A, which they denied, but were found guilty with Dar at a trial that ended in June.

The court heard that Dar, who was convicted of the offence after trial, had a science degree and came from a law-abiding family.

Defending him Kieran Vaughan KC said: "He was a university graduate who got a 2:1 in pharmaceutical medical chemistry, who is hard working and comes from a decent family that have never come close to transgressing any laws.

"How he came to end up in this position is very difficult to fathom.

"He knows he has  a very high price to pay and that these are consequences his family will also have to live with for many tears to come."

But, Judge Davies said that Dar was aware of the consequences and had acted confidently on the day.

He said: "It is clear to me that you had a real confidence about your activities that day. You walked past Border Force officers with a real degree of confidence.

"After picking up the bags, you had them over your shoulder and were chatting to other security officer, your subordinates."

Judge Davies also sentenced Davis and Farquharson to 14 and a half years each in jail.

They were all serve 40 per cent of the sentence before being eligible for release on licence.

Mark Abbott, NCA operations manager, said: “Dar committed a gross betrayal of trust by playing a crucial role in this conspiracy which started in South America and would have ended with violent street gangs in UK towns and cities.

“Organised crime groups need corrupt insiders like Dar to help move illegal commodities. As an airport security manager, he had the access and ability to move drugs so they might not be stopped.

“Heathrow Airport fully supported the operation along with Border Force and together we continue to combat the threat of Class A drugs being smuggled this way.”