A group of smugglers who were part of a vast drugs supply network have been sentenced.
Officers from the Organised Crime Partnership – a joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service Unit – investigated the enterprise which was regularly supplying London with large amounts of drugs.
From April to August 2022 the group delivered over 170 kilos of cocaine worth around £13.6 million to various locations across the UK. They used passwords, codenames and an encrypted app to conceal their identities with location details shared at the last minute to avoid detection.
The network was dismantled after Arvinder Bains, 39, from Telford, was stopped by OCP officers on 16 June while carrying out a supply in London. A search of his vehicle uncovered 10 kilos of compressed, high purity cocaine with a street value of £80,000.
Analysis of Bains’ seized mobile phone showed he was part of a larger, pre-meditated conspiracy to supply 22 kilos of the drug that day.
Shahrukh Hummayiun, 29, (top left) from Wolverhampton, co-ordinated the movements of three couriers: Sindija Virse (bottom right), 28, from Lower Stondon, Gabriele Trinkunaite (top right), 26, and Rubanpreet Kaur (bottom left), 26, both from Wolverhampton.
They used an encrypted messaging platform called Wickr to arrange meeting sites and share vehicle details, including the Nissan X-Trail Bains was stopped in.
Further messages were found confirming individual arrival times for meeting Trinkunaite on 16 June and dividing the drugs between the couriers.
Trinkunaite, Kaur and Hummayiun were later found to have carried out reconnaissance of the meeting site the day before. Hummayiun messaged Bains at the time stating “Tomorrow titch no excuses… Car must be ready”.
Trinkunaite was arrested by the West Midlands Region Organised Crime Unit on 14 January 2025. Hummayiun subsequently tried to flee the country to Dubai but was arrested at Gatwick Airport on 15 January 2025. Kaur and Virse were also arrested on 15 January at their respective home addresses.
They were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court today [Monday 23 March] to a total of 30 years and five months.
Detective Inspector Richard Smith, from the Organised Crime Partnership, said: “This criminal enterprise was sophisticated and far reaching.
“The group brazenly supplied multiple communities with dangerous class A drugs without a care for the consequences.
“Thanks to the work of the dedicated investigators on the OCP, we were able to dismantle this network and eliminate the risk they pose to the public.”
23 March 2026
