A Bradford man has been jailed for 21 years for playing a leading role in a sophisticated plot to smuggle high-purity heroin with a street value of more than £37 million into the UK.

Noman Qureshi, 32, of Brackenhill Mews, Great Horton, was jailed yesterday along with his co-conspirator Israr Khan, 35, of Luton, who received a prison sentence of 18 years.

The massive haul had been hidden in the bumper, wheel arches, behind the dashboard, in the central console, the spare wheel compartment and in the engine of an old X-type Jaguar that arrived on a container ship at Felixstowe port.

In cramming the car with 316 packets of heroin weighing a total of 230 kilos, the conspirators had made the vehicle into the "World's most expensive car," according to investigators from the National Crime Agency.

Police were able to find the drugs after the Jaguar was scanned with X-ray equipment, and its secret was revealed in an amazing set of pictures.

The car had arrived from Pakistan and the heroin was from the "fields of Afghanistan."

Yesterday, the two men were found guilty at Luton Crown Court of trying to bring the heroin into the UK.

A third man, Mohammed Safder, 43, of Sidney Elson Way, East Ham, London, who had pleaded not guilty to the charges, was acquitted by the jury.

Passing sentence Judge Barbara Mensah told Qureshi, who has two children: "Dealing in heroin is odious, pernicious and evil.

"This was a very sophisticated operation and it's clear every cog in the wheel of that operation was important."

She said that evidence from the trial showed that Qureshi had been on the phone to Pakistan on the day he drove from Bradford to Luton and onto London.

The judge said it was clear his role had been a leading one. "You obviously had management and organisational responsibilities," she added.

She said he had also had the authority to recruit people to the conspiracy and recruited Khan who had acted as his "trusted lieutenant."

She told both men, who had previous convictions for drug offences, they had been recruited because they were not novices.

There was no doubt they would have been substantially rewarded if they had not been caught, she told the pair.

After the case, National Crime Agency Branch Commander David Norris said:"These men were part of an international crime group planning to import hundreds of kilos of high-purity heroin to the UK.

"It was a quite remarkable smuggling attempt. The car in which the drugs were hidden had virtually every spare bit of space filled with heroin. Crucial parts of the vehicle, like electrics, had been removed to create more room.

"But NCA investigators were one step ahead and managed to prevent these harmful drugs making it onto the streets."