Opium worth £75,000 seized at Dover
18 March 2011
A Dutch lorry driver, living in London, pleaded guilty on 15 March to attempting to import approximately 5 kg of opium into the UK. The drugs had an estimated street value of £75,000. On 13 March 2011 UK Border Agency officers at Dover stopped a Dutch-registered lorry carrying chocolate muffins which had arrived on a ferry from Dunkirk.
After questioning the driver, officers searched the vehicle and found the drugs in nine clear wrapped packages in a cab locker.
The driver was Mohammad Satari-Khavas. He was arrested and pleaded guilty on 16 March at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court. He was remanded in custody and will appear at Canterbury Crown Court at a later date for sentencing.
A second man from Poland has been bailed while investigations continue.
Malcolm Bragg, the UK Border Agency’s criminal and financial assistant director, said:
‘UK Border Agency officers work tirelessly 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to detect and prevent drugs from being smuggled into the UK. We are determined to prevent this terrible trade which can have such a destructive impact on the lives of so many’.
UK Border Agency officers now use hi-tech search equipment to combat immigration crime and detect banned and restricted goods that smugglers attempt to bring into the country. Additionally they use an array of search techniques including sniffer dogs, carbon dioxide detectors, heartbeat monitors and scanners – as well as visual searches – to find stowaways, illegal drugs, firearms and cigarettes.
