People smuggler tries to fool sniffer dogs... with chilli
a PeOPle smuggler who was trying to sneak a family of four into Britain tried to distract sniffer dogs by rubbing chilli powder all over a camper van.
Skelly Monpierre was stopped at a checkpoint in essex when he brought the van over on a ferry from Holland.
a Border Force officer opened a rear luggage compartment only to discover an iraqi couple and their two young children crammed inside, hiding under a blue plastic sheet.
at a trial, Judge emma Peters said Monpierre had ‘preyed on the desperation of others’.
French national Monpierre, 28, had driven the hired camper van to Harwich international Port from the Hook of Holland in February last year, accompanied by Patricia Ferreira, 25.
after their smuggling was spotted, the pair claimed that the family must have got into the camper van while it was parked at a campsite near rotterdam.
However, text messages found on Ferreira’s phone suggested arrangements for the pick-up had been made in advance of the trip.
Stuart Cooper, from the immigration enforcement Criminal and Financial investigation team, said: ‘This was a deliberate and concerted attempt to evade the uK’s immigration controls.
‘Monpierre and Ferreira had gone to great lengths to conceal their human cargo, even rubbing chilli powder around the edges of the luggage compartment in an effort to conceal the scent from sniffer dogs.’ Monpierre, from lin- coln, Chelmsford was jailed Crown for three Court years at for assisting unlawful immigration into the uK.
The iraqi family were passed to immigration officials.
The computer science graduate also admitted two charges of possession of class a drugs with intent to supply, after he was found to be planning to sell cocaine and ecstasy to students.
The drugs convictions brought his and Monpierre drugs Defending, total eight and jail months. had his sentence Daniel had life had problems Taylor to ‘spiralled five years with said more Judge and Peters more out said: of control’. ‘you had a cutting agent at home, you had bags of cocaine at home and weighing scales, and in your car were MDMa and cocaine in various bags. you were quite simply a drug dealer.’ Jailing him, she said: has ‘you transcended legitimate taken are a clever it business way the entrepreneur too line far, and between who illegal who has business.’ possible he The would judge be added deported it was after his sentence. Ferreira, from Portugal, admitted assisting unlawful immigration to the uK but failed to appear at court for sentencing. a warrant has now been issued for her arrest.