A 68-year-old Pakistani citizen has been arrested for attempting to import heroin into the United States with an aim to establish an international narcotics smuggling empire.
Shahbaz Khan was taken in custody by Liberian authorities on December 1 and brought to the United States. He was presented before United States Magistrate Judge James Cott on Friday, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said.
Bharara said Khan allegedly had “designs on establishing an international narcotics smuggling empire” and sought to arrange for five kilos of pure heroin to be imported to New York from Asia, promising to supply hundreds of kilograms more.
Between August and October 2016, Khan participated in a series of telephone calls and in-person meetings in countries in Southwest Asia with undercover law enforcement officials who, he believed, were heroin traffickers interested in purchasing kilogram quantities of heroin for importing into the US.
Khan agreed to supply hundreds of kilograms of heroin from Southwest Asia, saying he could send heroin to the US, Canada, and “anywhere else in the world”, and that he was able to send the narcotics by plane or ship.
In late September, Khan travelled to a country in Southwest Asia where he met with the undercover officers and agreed to provide an initial shipment of five kilograms of heroin. He said once the five kilograms of heroin successfully arrived in New York City, he would begin supplying larger quantities of heroin on a regular basis.
If convicted, Khan faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
