A CORRUPT baggage handler at Heathrow Airport has been jailed for smuggling drugs into the UK.

Dev Anand, 24, of Willoughby Road, Langley, was jailed for 7 years and 8 months during his sentencing yesterday (Friday) at Birmingham Crown Court.

His accomplice, fellow baggage handler Vaughn Henry, 46, was jailed for 10 years and 8 months.

Anand and Henry had been working together to smuggle a suitcase from Brazil, containing three kilos of cocaine, out of Heathrow and into a waiting taxi for transportation to Birmingham. As they were passing the drugs over, however, they were arrested by National Crime Agency officers.

The taxi driver, Adnan Ahmed Malik, 24, was sentenced to nine years, while the ringleader of the gang, London-based drug trafficker Grattan Samuels, 23, was sentenced to 16 years.

Anand pleaded guilty to conspiring to import drugs during the trial Colin Williams, NCA branch operations manager, said: "The long sentences handed out to these men show how serious this kind of offending is.

"Corruption at the border threatens the safety and security of the UK which is why tackling it is such a priority for the NCA and law enforcement partners."