A music teacher who brought almost £200,000 of opium into Britain has been jailed for seven and a half years.

Jamshid Soltani-Tehrani, 47, of Hammersmith, pleaded guilty to smuggling 19.98 kilos of the drug into the country.

The Iranian national was caught after arriving at St Pancras Station on the Eurostar from Brussels in March.

UK Border Agency officers discovered the drugs stashed in a computer case Soltani-Tehrani was carrying and also in a bodypack around his midriff and arrested him.

The seizure was the result of a joint Hammersmith council, Hammersmith police and central government operation to crack down on drugs and fraud.

Peter Avery, assistant director of HM Revenue and Customs criminal investigation, said: "Our investigators are determined to bring anyone involved in drug smuggling to justice.

"Drugs devastate lives and communities and we are determined to prevent them reaching UK streets."

Soltani-Tehrani was jailed at Isleworth Crown Court last week.

The net weight of the opium he pleaded guilty to importing has been estimated to have a street value of £199,980.

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