London - Six British drug dealers were on Monday jailed for a total of 94 years for helping to smuggle £1.6bn of drugs into the UK hidden in a fleet of fake ambulances.
The men linked up with Dutch gangsters to supply cocaine, heroin and ecstasy to organised criminals across Britain via Channel ferry crossings.
Between October 2014 and June last year around £1.6bn-worth of drugs were packed in colourcoded parcels hidden in the roof linings and under the floors of the ambulances.
The vehicles were driven from Amsterdam through ports at Harwich and Hull. UK authorities thought they were collecting sick Dutch tourists. Bogus paperwork was created for patients that were to be collected in the UK and on some trips people were recruited to act as medically incapacitated passengers. One member of the gang even posed as an injured holidaymaker, complete with a pair of crutches.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) finally caught the smugglers after tracking an ambulance from Harwich to a scrapyard in Smethwick, West Midlands, last year. Inside the ambulance officers found 193kg of cocaine and 74kg of heroin, 20 000 ecstasy tablets and 2kg of MDMA crystal.
Two of the UK criminals - Raymond De Dilva and Petrit Kastrati - were arrested at the scene, and four more were caught from evidence gathered in the ambulance. The three Dutch smugglers - Olof Schoon, Leonardus Bijlsma and Richard Engelsbel - were jailed for a total of 70 years in November last year.
NCA officers discovered the ambulances had been used 45 times during the 14 months prior to the seizure after examining the vehicle''s satellite navigation systems.
James Gibson, 56, of Ollerton, Nottinghamshire, who was the “central player” in the plot, was jailed for 20 years for conspiracy to import the drugs. He also received a concurrent 15-year sentence for conspiracy to supply and a three-year concurrent sentence for concealing criminal property on January 14. Gibson''s right-hand man Darren Owen, 48, of Rushden, Northamptonshire, who would meet the ambulances on a weekly basis, was jailed for 15 years for conspiracy to import the drugs. He was further sentenced concurrently for 11 years for conspiracy to supply drugs. Richard Clarke, 36, of Acton, Suffolk, who was in charge of storing the narcotics, received 11 years for conspiracy to supply drugs. Jonathan Floyd, 47, of Burnage, Manchester - the northwest distributor - was given a 15-year sentence for conspiracy to import drugs. He was also jailed for 11 years concurrently for conspiracy to supply. Raymond De Silva, 61, of Slough, Berkshire, a courier, was jailed for 16 years for conspiracy to import drugs. Petrit Kastrati, 42, of Crystal Palace, London, another courier, was jailed for 17 years and six months for conspiracy to import drugs.
Judge Francis Laird QC said: “This was a sophisticated, meticulously planned and well-executed conspiracy to import Class A drugs on a truly colossal scale. Once smuggled into the UK, on the streets the value would be in excess of £1bn.
Last November, Schoon was jailed for 24 years, Bijlsma was sentenced to 28 years and Englesbell was jailed for 18 years.
The Independent