[CAT] "A man tried to smuggle heroin into Britain using cats"

[rfmcdonald]

Metro.co.uk's Amy Willis reports.

A man who tried to use pet cats to smuggle £1.2 million worth of heroin into the UK has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

Scott Parker, 43, used a pet transportation business as a cover for smuggling the high-purity drug, stashing it inside the crates used to carry the animals.

The discovery was made when staff at Heathrow Animal Reception Centre noticed that the pens were unusually heavy.

When they were examined, officers found compartments concealing packages – which contained a total of nine kilos of the Class A drug – in their bases.

Parker had no idea his haul had been discovered and was arrested on November 21 last year as he waited to collect the cats following the flight from Johannesburg, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Happily, the cats are fine.