Ambulance gang is jailed for smuggling in £1.6bn of drugs
A GANG who smuggled up to £1.6billion of drugs into the country using fake ambulances have been jailed for a total of 164 years.
They conceived a plan to bring in heroin, cocaine and MDMA (ecstasy) using four Dutch ambulances as well as pretend patients and paramedics.
Between October 2014 and June last year the criminals trafficked narcotics packaged in colour- coded parcels in secret compartments in the ambulances into Britain via Channel ferry crossings.
Officials thought the ambulances were collecting sick Dutch tourists. One gang member posed as a tourist on crutches, while others wore paramedic uniforms.
The National Crime Agency busted the gang after tracking an ambulance from Harwich, Essex, to a scrapyard in Smethwick, West Midlands, in June last year.
One ambulance contained £38million of drugs including 93kg of cocaine, 74kg of heroin and £80,000 of ecstasy tablets.
Satellite navigation data, phone records and CCTV revealed the ambulance and the three others had made 45 previous trips. The total operation resulted in drugs with a street value of around £1.6billion being brought into Britain.
Yesterday six men pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to conspiracy to import class A drugs. Ringleader James ‘Gibbo’ Gibson, 56, was jailed for 20 years while Darren Owen, 48, received 15 years. Both men, from Nottinghamshire, also admitted conspiracy to supply drugs. Richard Clarke, 35, of Suffolk, got 11 years and Jonathan Floyd, 47, of Manchester, got 15, while also admitting conspiracy to supply drugs. Raymond Desilva, 61, of Slough, was given 16 years and Petrit Kastrati, 42, of Crystal Palace was jailed for 17 years and six months.
Three Dutch men – Olof Schoon, Leonardus Biljsma and Richard Engelsbel – were jailed last year for 24 years, 28 and 18 respectively for their part in the plot.