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Teacher seized on Eurostar with kilos of opium strapped to body
Aline Nassif23 Jul 2009
Jamshid Soltani-Tehrani was caught with opium strapped to his body
A music teacher who brought almost £200,000 of opium into Britain has been jailed for seven and a half years.
Jamshid Soltani-Tehrani, 47, of Hammersmith, pleaded guilty to smuggling 19.98 kilos of the drug into the country.
The Iranian national was caught after arriving at St Pancras Station on the Eurostar from Brussels in March.
UK Border Agency officers discovered the drugs stashed in a computer case Soltani-Tehrani was carrying and also in a bodypack around his midriff and arrested him. The seizure was the result of a joint Hammersmith council, Hammersmith police and central government operation to crack down on drugs and fraud.
Peter Avery, assistant director of HM Revenue and Customs criminal investigation, said: "Our investigators are determined to bring anyone involved in drug smuggling to justice.
"Drugs devastate lives and communities and we are determined to prevent them reaching UK streets."
Greg Smith, a Hammersmith councillor, today welcomed the sentence which he said contributed to making "the streets of Hammersmith and Fulham free of drugs and drug dealers". He added: "Around 80 per cent of our most prolific criminals are addicted to either opiates or crack cocaine, or both.
"Drugs destroy lives and we will continue to hound those who peddle them into submission."
Soltani-Tehrani was jailed at Isleworth crown court last week.
Opium, which contains morphine, is extracted from poppy seeds and used to produce heroin.
Controlling poppy fields is one of the key elements of the war in Afghanistan, where the drug is controlled by the Taliban.
The net weight of the opium he pleaded guilty to importing has been estimated to have a street value of £199,980.
Reader views (7)
i think these kind of people need to be in prison for atleast 50 years
- moha, london, 08/08/2010 11:53
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Send the bugger back to Iran, they know how to deal with his sort.
- Michael, Glasgow, 24/07/2009 10:35
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Good copperin'...
- Paul, Bromley, 23/07/2009 17:56
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If he's an Iranian national, send him home after HM Prisons have done with him. What? He'll be in danger of death from the religious laws of his home country? Sad. Bad luck mate.
Choices have consequences.
- Rogan, Irving, 23/07/2009 16:56
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Patricia - legal crops bring in a whole lot less money than illegal ones. Guess where the growers will sell their crops, given half a chance, plus the excuse that they were 'going to sell to the legal market' if they are caught. (Licences can be bought out of the illegal profits if needed, so please - no nonsense about monitoring the legal crops).
- Rogan, Irving, 23/07/2009 16:47
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What I don't understand about the production of the opium poppy is that it is used legitmately to obtain morphine so why doesn't the west buy the crop from Afghanistan to process legitimately.
And another thing I don't understand, is if the Taleban are such a religious group of people that they compel women to abide by the Koran in their dress, conduct and denying them an education, what are they doing growing opium poppies. Drugs and alcohol are strictly forbidden in the Koran.
- Patricia, LONDON, 23/07/2009 16:00
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Officials are pretty thorough to and from Britain.I experienced everything bar a full body search when going to Brussels last month.
Put me off using the Eurostar again I can tell you.
- Steve, London, 23/07/2009 12:23
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