Three Calderdale men have been given jail sentences totalling more than 36 years after UK Border Agency officers uncovered a £1m heroin smuggling operation.

The trio were said to have played leading or significant roles in the well-organised operation which saw regular consignments of the Class A drug being delivered to addresses in Halifax over a seven-month period.

One of those jailed was Baber Khan, who was working as a taxi driver in Elland.

The operation only came to an end after officers at Heathrow Airport intercepted a crate labelled as ‘’handicrafts’’ from Pakistan and discovered 1.73 kilograms of heroin concealed in the hollowed out wooden struts of the container.

Bradford Crown Court heard that if the 51% pure heroin had been "cut’’ to street deals it would have been worth an estimated £441,000.Border Agency officers estimated that and other consignments totalled more than £1m.

The crate had been destined for a house in Blackwood Grove, Halifax, but instead officers carried out an early morning raid on the premises in May 2012 and arrested 30-year-old taxi driver Baber Khan, who was working for Elland Taxis.

Inquiries into mobile phone records linked "similar" deliveries to the other addresses in the same area of Halifax in the preceding months.

Prosecutor Stephen Wood said another consignment marked as "dinner set wooden show pieces" had been delivered to an address in Dyson Street, Halifax, back in November 2011 and records showed a further three deliveries between January 2012 and April 2012 to homes in Highfield Terrace, Bowman Terrace and West View.

Judge Jonathan Rose heard that the other four consignments, which had not been intercepted, could have resulted in heroin worth more than £1 million reaching the streets of West Yorkshire and beyond.

Mr Wood submitted that the heroin smuggling operation, which was running at the rate of almost one consignment a month, would have continued if the crate had not been intercepted at Heathrow.

Married father-of-three Khan, who had worked for Elland Taxis at the time, was found guilty of being involved in the conspiracy to import heroin following a trial last month and he was jailed for15 years.

Judge Rose described heroin as a pernicious and evil drug which blighted the lives of users and had a devastating effect on society.

He noted that Khan, who had no previous convictions, was not himself a heroin user and said his involvement in the conspiracy was the result of greed.

Judge Rose concluded that Khan had played a ‘’leading role’’ in the conspiracy and was towards the top of the organisation at least in the Halifax area.

Tasadaq Hussain, 36, of Bowman Terrace, and 28-year-old Imran Muhammed Ali, of Dyson Road, both pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy to import heroin before Khan’s trial got underway.

Hussain was jailed for a total of 12-and-a-half years after admitting the conspiracy charge and two further offences of possessing heroin with intent to supply.

Father-of-two Ali was sentenced to nine years in jail.

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