Border guard’s £4m plot to smuggle in guns and drugs
A BORDER guard is facing jail after trying to smuggle millions of pounds of drugs and guns into the country while on duty.
Simon Pellett loaded an official Border Agency van with £3.8million of heroin and cocaine, as well as an arsenal of pistols and ammunition.
He hid them behind boxes of wine but police had bugged his van and he was ambushed by officers in a supermarket car park in Calais on October 6 last year.
Pellett, 37, was convicted at Isleworth Crown Court in London and will be sentenced tomorrow.
The court heard that Pellett, of Dover, was unaware that he and his accomplices, gangsters David Baker and Alex Howard, were being spied on by the National Crime Agency and the Metropolitan Police.
NCA officers had been watching the gang for weeks and had put a listening device in Pellett’s van and could hear him plotting with Baker and Howard.
French police pounced in the car park in Loon Plage, near the Channel Tunnel terminal, and found three holdalls stuffed with guns and drugs.
The haul included 6kg (13lb) of heroin with a street value of £800,000, 34kg (75lb) of cocaine with a street value of £2.8million, eight semi-automatic pistols, two who were members of an organised conspiring to import cocaine and revolvers, three silencers and crime gang. heroin after a month-long trial. ammunition, including a magazine Richard Jory, QC, prosecuting, Pellett and Baker, 55, of Beckenham, for a sub-machine gun. described Pellet an ‘an open door south London, were also
Prosecutors said Pellett’s ‘personal for smuggling high value drugs convicted of conspiring to import greed’ made him susceptible into the country’. firearms. to corruption by Baker and Howard, All three men were convicted of Howard, 35, of Sittingbourne, Kent – who had been keeping lookout nearby and claimed he thought he was helping to smuggle cigarettes – was cleared of the firearms charge.
Pellett was also convicted of misconduct in public office for acting as he did while an employee of UK Border Force. The three men had been extradited from France to the UK to face trial.
David Rock, from the NCA’s Anti-Corruption Unit, said: ‘As a border officer, Pellet’s job was to
‘Susceptible to corruption’
prevent the illegal importation of goods into the UK, including firearms and drugs. Yet his personal greed made him susceptible to corruption and allowed him to be exploited by a UK-based organised crime group.
‘Corruption at the border threatens the safety and security of the UK, which is why tackling it is such a priority for the NCA and law enforcement partners.
‘This operation involved close collaboration between the British and French authorities and is a prime example of our international efforts to tackle cross-border organised crime.’