A Birmingham drugs gang who conspired to smuggle up to £19 million of heroin into the UK from Pakistan have been jailed for more than 130 years, Birmingham Mail reported on Friday.

According to the details shared by the UK based news outlet, “the convicts had hidden the drugs inside industrial machinery shipped from Lahore, but were arrested following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA)”.

The eight were jailed at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday for a total of 138 and a half years after being convicted of conspiracy to import heroin, the report read.

Ringleaders Ameran Zeb Khan, 38, Mohammed Ali, 36, and Sajid Hussain, 32, were sentenced to 22 years each.

The court previously heard the men had organised two container shipments from Lahore, via Karachi, to the London Gateway Port in February and July last year.

The media outlet reported that John Davies, from the Crown Prosecution Service’s international justice and organised crime division, said: “These men were involved in a sophisticated conspiracy to import a huge amount of heroin into the country, ignoring the human cost class A drugs can have.

“The prosecution case demonstrated how the operation involved the use of bogus companies, false documents, unregistered mobile phones and trips to Pakistan.

“By careful presentation of the evidence in court, the prosecution demonstrated the individual roles played by each of these men, resulting in the guilty verdicts returned by the jury.”