A British-Pakistani woman has been handed a sentence of 21 years and six months in prison after authorities uncovered a large-scale heroin operation at her home in Bradford. Officers from the National Crime Agency found 85 kilograms of heroin, estimated to be worth £8.5 million, during a raid on the property.
The convicted woman, Sidrah Nosheen, 34, was identified as a key member of an organised criminal network involved in smuggling heroin from Pakistan into the United Kingdom and distributing it nationwide. Investigators said she played a central role in receiving, processing, and forwarding the drugs within the country.
Nosheen was arrested in June 2024 at her residence on Woodside Road in Wyke. During the search, officers discovered that one of the bedrooms had been converted into a heroin processing area. The drugs were concealed inside clothing items, including leather jackets, which were shipped to her address before being dismantled and repackaged into one-kilogram deals.
Alongside the heroin, officers seized scales, buckets, a wallpaper pasting table, and other equipment used in the operation. Boxes of plastic-wrapped clothing awaiting processing, as well as packaging remnants from earlier shipments, were also recovered from the property.
Digital evidence revealed extensive communication between Nosheen and an accomplice based in Pakistan, with hundreds of messages detailing the supply chain and logistics of transporting heroin to the UK. Investigators further established that she had distributed multi-kilogram quantities domestically and had once collected £250,000 in cash from a criminal contact in Bradford on behalf of the gang.
Nosheen initially stood trial at Bradford Crown Court but later entered a guilty plea, admitting to conspiracy to import and supply heroin. She was formally sentenced earlier this week for her role in the smuggling network.
