A 26-year-old man who smuggled up to £23,000 of heroin through the post from Pakistan was last night behind bars.

Kashif Zaman arranged for almost half a kilogram of the class-A drug to be sent to Oxford.

But police then found he had teamed up with his 19-year-old sister-in-law Safana Ijaz and the pair had even more stashed away.

Zaman, of Danvers Road, Rose Hill, had earlier admitted importing heroin and possession with intent to supply and was given six years in prison at Oxford Crown Court.

Ijaz, also of Danvers Road, and whose elder sister is Zaman’s wife, had previously admitted one count of possession with intent to supply and was given 21 months’ youth detention.

Tetteh Turkson, prosecuting, said a package from Karachi addressed to a house in Henley Street, East Oxford, was intercepted at a sorting office in October.

“Inside,” he said, “were three tunics with heroin taped to the insides.

“That was weighed and 467g was found in total in six packages with a purity of 54 per cent.”

He said that amount of drugs would have a street value of between £18,500 and £23,000.

Police then searched Ijaz’s rented room at the house in Henley Street and found “just short of 100g of heroin, the bulk of which was in an Utterly Butterly container”, Mr Turkson said.

Another 18.42g was found elsewhere in the room, along with drugs paraphernalia, and the total amount of heroin would have been worth £4,000 in street deals.

A raid at Zaman’s address in Danvers Road then uncovered about £1,500 in cash and another 7.04g of 48-per-cent-pure heroin, valued at up to £350.

Mr Turkson said Zaman had sent more than £9,200 to Pakistan in an 18-month period “with the inference being he had sent it to pay for the drugs”.

He added that all the heroin was cut with diazepam, which he described as “unusual” and “suggested all this emanated from the same source”.

Mr Turkson said: “Mr Zaman is clearly the controller of the two and was effectively using Miss Ijaz and the address in Henley Street as a place to store large quantities of drugs.”

Shufqat Khan, defending Ijaz, said his client came from a culture of arranged marriage and as a result her actions had “let herself down and, perhaps more importantly, let her family down”.

The court heard Ijaz was an ordinary young woman who had been through the education system and had a good upbringing.

Mr Khan added: “Her father is well-respected in the community.”

Ayaz Qazi, defending Zaman, who came to Britain in 2004, said he had caused “absolute trauma” to his family and was now aware of the consequences of his actions.

Judge George Bathurst-Norman told Zaman: “You were literally playing with the lives, the health and even sometimes the deaths of others.”

He told Ijaz: “I bear in mind that within your culture it’s a custom for young, unmarried girls perhaps to obey their elders even if they are your brother-in-law.

“However, I’m quite satisfied you knew, and you knew at the outset, what you were being asked to do.”