for smuggling opium into Britain inside hidden fake tabletops.
The tactic appeared to be a copy of a system used by two Iranian smugglers in Vancouver who were caught several years ago smuggling opium into Canada inside hollowed-out picture frames.
Police in Sheffield, England, in South Yorkshire, said Jahangir Hosseini, 46, and Kayvan Navid, 55, organized three 30-kilo consignments over the past year.
The first two consignments made it into Britain undetected. But the third consignment was found at Heathrow Airport last year and the pair went on trial last week.
Police said the tabletops were made of thin board and painted to look like wood. When officers at Heathrow discovered the opium inside, they replaced it with plaster and sent the tabletops to the addressed location, Hosseini’s home.
A hidden microphone picked up conversations with references to the two earlier consignments, the prosecution said. It said a check of travel records showed that Navid visited Iran just before each of the shipments was sent to Britain.