Mum Who Recruited Her Own Children Jailed Over £5m Cocaine Smuggling Plot

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A Bradford mother who dragged five of her children into a multimillion-pound cocaine smuggling operation has been jailed, along with several of her family members and an associate.

Farzana Kauser, 54, masterminded the plot to smuggle 180 kilograms of high-purity cocaine into the U.K. from Mexico, using her own children to carry out the risky missions, recent police reports revealed. The drugs, worth nearly £5 million wholesale, were flown into Birmingham Airport between August and November 2024.

Kauser orchestrated an elaborate method of deception. Members of the group would book short return trips to European cities such as Amsterdam or Dublin, travelling without any luggage. On their return to the U.K., instead of collecting bags from their own flight, they would head straight to the baggage carousel for an arriving flight from Cancun, Mexico. There, they retrieved suitcases stuffed with unaccompanied cocaine, posing as if the bags were their own.

This trick was used repeatedly across five separate trips. However, the operation collapsed on November 11, 2024, when National Crime Agency (NCA) officers intercepted six people outside Birmingham Airport. Each had a suitcase filled with the Class A drug.

Kauser, seen as a respectable mother by her community, had been carefully instructing her children to avoid detection and clean their tracks. NCA officers described her as meticulous and experienced, working behind a facade of normal family life.

Rick Mackenzie, Senior Investigating Officer at the NCA, said: “To her friends and people who thought they knew her, Farzana Kauser was a thoughtful, loving mum. In reality, she was well-practised in her life as a high-end cocaine trafficker. She pushed her children into huge danger and allowed their futures to be effectively destroyed.”

One of her sons involved in the operation was just 17 at the time.

Family Betrayal

The scale of Kauser’s betrayal has shocked many, with prosecutors and investigators highlighting how she groomed her children into serious criminality. She was sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison after admitting to conspiracy to evade the prohibition on importing a Class A drug.

Her children received the following sentences:

• Safa Noor, 19, jailed for seven years and two months
• Mohammed Aamir Shaffaq, 28, jailed for eight years and nine months
• Umair Mohammed, 22, jailed for eight years and one month
• Junaid Shaffaq, 33, jailed for ten years and nine months

Khaled Abdulkawi, 36, from Halesowen in Dudley, who was not a family member but acted as a courier, was also jailed for ten years and nine months.

Two others, Hamza Shaffaq, 18, and Sarah Hussain, 27, admitted participating in the gang’s activity. Hussain received a two-year sentence suspended for two years, while Shaffaq will be sentenced in October.

Sarah Ingram of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: “This was a sophisticated and well-planned operation to flood the U.K. with high-purity cocaine. What makes this case particularly disturbing is the family nature of the conspiracy.”

The CPS said the case underscores the ongoing work of prosecutors and law enforcement to disrupt drug trafficking networks and hold those responsible to account.