A HEROIN trafficker who tried to smuggle nearly £750,000 of the opiate through Felixstowe docks is beginning a nine-year jail term today.Samsul Islam's plot to sneak 14 kilos of the Class A drug by concealing it in boxes of tissues was foiled after a swoop by Ipswich-based customs officers, Snaresbrook Crown Court in London heard.

A HEROIN trafficker who tried to smuggle nearly £750,000 of the opiate through Felixstowe docks is beginning a nine-year jail term today.

Samsul Islam's plot to sneak 14 kilos of the Class A drug by concealing it in boxes of tissues was foiled after a swoop by Ipswich-based customs officers, Snaresbrook Crown Court in London heard.

The drugs were imported from Bangladesh, arriving at Felixstowe International Port on March 1 last year.

After the heroin's discovery, national investigation services officers, set up a convert operation during which they followed the drugs to an industrial unit rented by Islam.

Exactly one month after they pounced to seize the opiate, which was said not to be of high-grade purity, customs officers, who had Islam under surveillance arrested the 30-year-old at his home in New Road, Ilford.

The Felixstowe consignment was said to have been worth £740,850 on the street.

The jury were told Islam was also responsible for attempting to use boxes of frozen vegetables to conceal 7.5 kgs of heroin, two weeks earlier than the Felixstowe drugs arrived in a container at the port.

The first consignment was intercepted by custom officers at Southampton International Port on February 14, last year. Its street value is estimated as £479,400 Islam originally denied the charges against him, but in a dramatic u-turn entered a guilty plea to the two heroin importation offences on the third day of the trial that was expected to last several weeks.

A third offence involving an importation of heroin in November 2004 has been left on file.

Islam was sentenced to nine years for each offence to run concurrently.

After the case John Phillips, acting chief investigation officer in Ipswich, said:

"HM Revenue and Customs officers have prevented a large amount of heroin from hitting the streets in the UK.

“The successful interception, investigation and prosecution of this case has culminated in a lengthy custodial sentence being imposed and sends a clear message to those wanting to profit from smuggling Class A drugs "