FATHER AND SON IN FRUIT JUICE HEROIN RACKET AVOID JAIL

Suspended terms for pair who helped smuggle $20m of drugs in

- BEN PERRIN News Reporter

Colin Bartlett Lee Bartlett The juice containers

FATHER and son have avoided jail over a £20 million heroin racket which saw the drug smuggled into Birmingham in fruit juice.

Colin Bartlett, 54, and Lee Bartlett, 30, of Bordesley Green, were part of an organised crime group that used a front company with a fictitious director to import the Class A drug in pomegranate juice from Afghanistan.

Two other wanted men remain on the run.

A consignment weighing more than 420kg was seized from a shipping container in Birmingham in May 2023. The load had a street value of more than £20.3m the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

NCA officers were watching as the two men and 11 paid workers began to unload the container which contained 2.6 tonnes of pomegranate juice.