US court sentences two Afghans for conspiracy to smuggle heroin

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AT Monitoring Desk-The Manhattan Federal Court has sentenced two Afghans to 15 and 10 years in jail over conspiring to import heroin into United States, US attorney office district New York said in a statement on Tuesday.

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that LAJBAR LAJAWARD KHAN, a/k/a “Haji Lajaward,” and AMAL SAID SAID ALAM SHAH, a/k/a “Haji Zar Mohammad,” were sentenced to 15 years and 131 months in prison, respectively, for conspiring to import large quantities of heroin into the United States, and for distributing heroin intending that the heroin would be imported into the United States.

On September 12, 2018, LAJAWARD was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and on September 17, 2018, SAID was sentenced to 131 months in prison.  LAJAWARD and SAID pled guilty to a Superseding Indictment on June 26, 2017, before U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood, who also imposed these sentences.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “The defendants conspired and attempted to import heroin into the United States from Afghanistan.  Their ‘sample’ shipment alone was three kilograms of heroin, and they spoke of the ability to import a thousand kilos.  We will continue to work with the DEA and international law enforcement partners to curb the importation of potentially lethal heroin.”

According to the Superseding Indictment, other documents filed in this case, and statements made during court proceedings:

LAJAWARD and SAID, two Afghan nationals, were part of a drug trafficking organization (the “DTO”) based in Afghanistan that produced and distributed large quantities of heroin.  Between approximately May 2014 and June 2015, LAJAWARD and SAID worked together in an effort to import large quantities of heroin – in the range of 1,000 kilograms – from Afghanistan into the United States.