On the surface, Sidrah Nosheen lived an ordinary and ‘unremarkable’ life at her rented four-bed semi in the quiet village of Wyke.
The 34-year-old ran a small-scale henna tattoo business from her suburban home in the outskirts of Bradford, spending nights in with her two cats and one dog.
She kept to herself and was well liked by neighbours, especially when she dropped off homemade curries at their door.
Her lifestyle was unflashy and modest, even boring, some could argue, with the only indulgence a second-hand BMW parked on her back driveway.
But beneath this veneer of suburban respectability, Nosheen was living a double life.
The beauty therapist was in fact running a major drugs operation from her spare room with a shipment of heroin worth £8.5m stashed in the lining of leather jackets.
Neighbours watched on in horror as an endless stream of bags were carried out by armed officers during a National Crime Agency (NCA) raid.
Nosheen was a central figure in an international gang that smuggles heroin from Pakistan to the UK, before distributing it across the country.
The class-A powder was found hidden in cardboard boxes of clothing, inside leather jackets, and in packages of saris, which she would then remove and sort into 1kg deal bags.
In total, officers uncovered 85kg of heroin in the home, all imported from Pakistan – an increasingly common drug smuggling route to the UK according to experts.
Sidrah Nosheen had been living a seemingly ordinary life in a rented suburban semi (pictured) in the quiet village of Wyke, on the outskirts of Bradford
Her only indulgence seemed to be a blue BMW 3-series, but this alone was not enough to make neighbours suspect anything of the friendly neighbour
31-year-old Nosheen was sentenced to 21 years and six months after being found with £8.5m worth of heroin in her back bedroom
When officers from the NCA raided Nosheen’s home, they found her back bedroom had been converted into a heroin processing plant, complete with a wallpaper pasting table, scales, buckets and other tools.
A search of her phone revealed hundreds of messages with an accomplice in Pakistan discussing the supply of heroin in the UK.
On one occasion, she collected £250,000 for the organised crime group from a criminal in Bradford.
Almost all of the heroin which lands in the UK originates from Afghanistan, and while the most common smuggling route is through the Balkans, the ‘southern’ route through Pakistan has become a ‘very well established pipeline’, according to expert in organised crime Gary Carroll.
And once it arrives at ports in the southeast of England – after an arduous journey from Pakistan’s coast, across the Arabian Sea, and often around Africa – they are transported to key hubs in the UK to be distributed further.
Among these hubs are regions such as Bradford and Birmingham with large South Asian communities, where Pakistani crime groups are said to have strong familial links and contacts.
Mr Carroll, who runs consultancy Claymore Advisory Group, explained: ‘These organised crime groups in Pakistan have family ties to many cities including Bradford in England and so it is a lot easier to deal with.
‘It helps to form part of an established pipeline. It means the organised crime groups don’t have to trust other crime groups, it’s a lot easier to trust those linked through family, it might be first cousins.’
While it is not known whether Nosheen became involved in the criminal world through family ties, there is no doubt she grew to become a major player in her organised crime group.
Hiding behind the front of her seemingly legitimate henna business, she stored and distributed millions of pounds of class A drugs without arousing suspicion.
But while it stunned unsuspecting neighbours, Nosheen’s landlord told of her ‘dodgy character’ and their long battle to evict her.
The 34-year-old lived at the four-bed property for three years before being taken into custody, during some of which she lived with her delivery courier ex-boyfriend, but latterly alone with just her pets.
The heroin was found hidden in bags of clothing including within packages of South Asian wear including sarees
The drug was also found hidden in the lining of leather jackets delivered in cardboard boxes. A total of 85kg of heroin from Pakistan was found in the home
The seemingly ordinary woman had a front of a henna tattoo business, which she advertised on social media
But in reality National Crime Agency officers who raided her home found she had made her back bedroom into a heroin processing plant
But despite running a multi-million pound drug operation from her home, she struggled to pay her £750-a-month rent, and racked up nearly £9,000 in arrears.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, the family who rented the property to Nosheen said she ‘lived in squalor’, surrounded by cat urine, and would only pay rent in cash.
‘She was supposed to be paying £750-a-month rent, but she constantly fell behind’, the landlord’s brother said.
‘She drove a BMW 3 Series, yet couldn’t pay her rent on time. That never made sense to us.
‘She was rude, abrupt, difficult – just hard work from day one.
‘She was here for three years, the first year and a half was fine. After that it was absolute mayhem.
‘She stopped paying properly, caused endless problems, and we had to go through the civil courts to evict her.
‘By the time it went to court, she’d racked up about £8,900 in rent arrears. The judge ordered her to pay it within 24 hours or vacate the property.
‘Magically, the next day, the full amount appeared – all in cash. The estate agent rang us completely shocked.
‘She always paid cash. That explains a lot now, doesn’t it?
‘She thought she was untouchable. That was her attitude.
‘If we’d known what she was involved in, we’d have served her notice immediately.’
The BMW-driving tenant, who was caught out following an investigation by the National Crime Agency, has now been sentenced to 21 years and six months.
The landlord’s brother added: ‘To be honest with you, she looked like a bit of a dodgy character. Because of the way she used to act, she was one of those dodgy people. She used to smoke cannabis.
‘She caused us nothing but stress, damage, and loss. She was really bad news.
Nosheen rented the four-bed semi for three years, but according to the landlord’s family constantly fell behind on payments. Pictured: The home on the left with a BMW parked in the drive
A view of the back garden on the suburban street lined with traditional stone and brick homes where Nosheen lived
Nosheen was found to have played a ‘crucial role’ in an organised crime group smuggling heroin into the UK from Pakistan
Neighbours told of how she did not seem to have a full-time job but was running a henna tattoo business. She lived in her home alone with her two cats and a dog, and on occasion had cooked neighbours a curry
‘You don’t expect someone allegedly running millions of pounds’ worth of drugs to be living surrounded by cat urine and rubbish – but that’s exactly what it was like.
‘There’s no way she was the main player. I think she was a joey from somebody.
‘Someone importing that much heroin doesn’t struggle to pay rent and keep getting dragged to court.
‘We keep getting letters posted from bailiffs and debt collectors looking for her. We’ve got about 30 of them.
‘She was arrested in June 2024, but we didn’t know. We only found out months later when bailiffs took possession of the house in September.
‘For three months the property was just sitting empty, rent unpaid, and we had no idea she was already in custody.
‘When we finally got the house back, it was an absolute wreck. Precisely 168 bin bags of rubbish came out of here.
‘The smell was unbearable – cat urine, dog urine everywhere. We had to rip out the flooring, redo the bathroom, and renovate the entire house again.
‘The banisters were scratched and broken, doors were damaged, and the place was filthy.’
A neighbour, who also asked not to be named, told the Mail how the news shocked them as she seemed like ‘an ordinary woman’.
They said: ‘She didn’t have a proper job as far as I know. I don’t think she worked at all.
‘The only thing we were aware of was some sort of henna tattoo business – she used to do designs on people’s hands.
‘I remember coming from work and seeing all these armed police in her back garden.
‘They were carrying out a stream of bags – which must have been the drugs.
‘It was mad.
‘You don’t think the woman in the house next door is some kind of narco queen.
‘She seemed just normal, like us. An ordinary woman.
‘She cooked us a curry one time – she seemed to be alright. We used to talk to her.
‘We weren’t expecting that, £8.5m right next door.’
More than 90 per cent of heroin found in the UK is produced in Afghanistan, predominantly in the country’s Helmant region.
While a common smuggling route is through Iran and through the Balkans, an alternative route, through Pakistan and Africa, has become ‘very well established’.
The heroin is driven across unmanned, mountainous borders over to Pakistan, before then being, in most cases, shipped from the country’s southern coast.
The drugs are loaded onto maritime containers from the Port of Karachi and Qasim, travel across the Arabian Sea, and in some cases arrive in Gulf countries along the Arabian Peninsula such as Oman, Qatar and the UAE.
Nosheen would boast about her modified blue BMW 3-series on Facebook
In smaller quantities, the heroin could be transported via air freight to major airports in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.
Whereas large quantities of the drug are more commonly shipped out in containers on a long journey circling east, to south, to west Africa, and around to the UK.
The ports at Southampton, London Gateway near Canvey Island, and Felixstowe in Suffolk, are among the main ports which see illegal maritime shipments arrive from Pakistan.
Though, smaller arrivals are also known to arrive in Hull and Liverpool.
The illicit shipments are the transported to members of organised crime groups in hotspots like Birmingham and Bradford, where Pakistani crime groups have strong familial links.
Mr Carroll told the Mail: ‘Pakistan is a very well established pipeline for heroin.
‘Its usually through maritime containers or air freight cargo.
‘Sometimes it will be stitched into clothing or soaked or impregnated into the clothing.
‘Pakistan is like the sorting office and then it is distributed from there.
‘So you will typically see it in areas that have quite a big Pakistani or Asian population.
‘I’m in Birmingham, you’ll also see it in Bradford. You can pinpoint about five locations that it would predominantly be coming in to.
‘It stops the need to involve outsiders, and keeps it safer and closer knit.
‘A lot of people in the likes of Bradford, Birmingham, they travel back to Pakistan either legally or illegally quite a bit and they know the areas quite well, have a many contacts and family.
‘It is the familial links to “back home”.
‘It’s much safer having someone they know in Pakistan than from South America.
‘Because of the sheer distance, air cargo and maritime routes are the most favourable.
‘Air and postage services are also used for smaller packages.’
Analysing the case of Nosheen, he said: ‘There have been an increase in ‘adys’, which is just people used for addresses, regardless of whoever is controlling the drugs.
‘They are often a trusted, willing participant, who holds the drugs temporarily for several hundred pounds.
‘But at 85kg, she would be particularly involved in the enterprise. She is also using it to store the drugs in large quantities for longer periods, so it suggests a more trusted role.’
