A man has been jailed after he was caught with half a million pounds worth of heroin in Ilford.

Jeetendra Parekh, 48 of Long Readings Lane, Slough was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment on Thursday, November,8 after being found guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs following a three-day trial.

His female accomplice Sibela Ahmed, 29, of Langdale Close, Dagenham pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possession with intent to supply and was jailed for eight years on Monday, October, 8.

The court heard that on December 7, 2017, detectives from the Met’s East Area Proactive Team stopped a taxi carrying both Parekh and Ahmed on Meath Road, Ilford.

A plastic bag containing 5kg of heroin was found in the rear passenger footwell, with an estimated street value of £500,000.

Officers later searched an address linked to Ahmed and found a further 46kg of heroin.

The street value was estimated to be £4.6 million.

Det Con Kevin Rowley, from the Met’s East Area Proactive Team, said: “This operation has seen a significant quantity of drugs removed from London’s streets and we are pleased Parekh will be joining Ahmed behind bars.

“I hope these lengthy sentences provide some level of reassurance to the public that we are doing all we can to clamp down on drug dealers and the criminality associated with them.”