Two international drug smugglers who flew £2.5 million of cocaine packed into Sports Direct shopping bags into the UK on a light aircraft have been jailed for a total of 40 years.
Flying Dutchman John Buwalda, 53, landed a small Piper Alpha aircraft at Rochester
Airport in June last year, with 22kgs of the class A drug inside disguised as wing weights.
The pilot then took the two shopping bags containing blocks of cocaine to meet fellow smuggler Jan Polak, 61, at a Holiday Inn nearby.
However National Crime Agency officers were lying in wait, arresting Polak as he left with the drugs before raiding Buwalda's hotel room, finding him sitting on the toilet with his trousers round his ankles.
Flying Dutchman: John Buwalda has been jailed for 23 years
At the Old Bailey this morning, Recorder Oliver Sells QC jailed Buwalda for 23 years and Polak for 17 years.
"It's clear this was a professional, commercial international smuggling enterprise, planned over a period of time and executed with great precision", said the judge.http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/drug-smugglers-who-flew-25m-cocaine-haul-to-uk-on-light-aircraft-jailed-for-40-years-a3457971.html
He said Buwalda had used his reputation as an international businessman "as a cover to make flights in a private plane, no doubt to establish your bona fides.
Jan Polak: The 61-year-old met his comrade at a Holiday Inn in Rochester
"You deliberately chose an unprotected private airport to increase the chance of non-detection, something now becoming a more common feature of such large scale importation."
The court heard the 22 packages of drugs smuggled in had a purity of between 80 and 87 percent, with a street value of around £2.5 million.
A van which would have been used to transport the drugs had a built-in secret compartment.
Cocaine: The drugs were smuggled in a Sports Direct bag
Polak denied playing a significant role in the drug smuggling plot, claiming he had been paid just £300 as a courier despite earning nearly £50,000 a year as a marketing director for a skincare company.
He said he had been asked to do a "favour" for a client who had bought cosmetics from him.
Buwalda told police that he worked for a company that trained Chinese dentists in European practises, and was hoping to network with people at Greenwich University in south-east London.
The court heard Buwalda is a self-made businessman, with a degree in marketing, the chairman of a management foundation, and a member of his local City Council between 2004 and 2007.
Buwalda, from Hilversum in Holland, and Polak, of Willow Tree Court, Borehamwood, both denied but were convicted of conspiracy to fraudulently evade the prohibition of class-A drugs.
Source: standard
No comments:
Post a Comment