UK Border Force Busts Ukrainian Lorry Driver Smuggling £1M of Cocaine
Serhii Tukalo, 39, from Smila, Ukraine, has been slammed with an 11-year prison sentence after Border Force stopped his lorry at Dover’s freight terminal in May. What looked like a routine check uncovered a £1 million drugs haul hidden inside a shipment of air compressors and pressure washers from Italy.
£1 Million of Class A Drugs Hidden in Lorry Load
Officers used an x-ray scan to spot something fishy in Tukalo’s cargo. On closer inspection, they found 20 kilo blocks of high purity cocaine cleverly wrapped and tucked inside boxes carrying factory equipment. The drugs, if sold in the UK, would have fetched around £1 million.
Past Crime and Secret Phone Data Seal Tukalo’s Fate
Tukalo was arrested on suspicion of importing Class A drugs, but he claimed ignorance about how the cocaine ended up in his vehicle. Police seized phones, a sim card holder, and paperwork, including records from a 2021 conviction in France for smuggling two Albanian migrants into the UK.
Forensic experts found images on his phone showing UK and Ukrainian bank notes – a sign of the known system drug traffickers use to prove identity when passing cash.
Although Tukalo said an extra sim card was just for family calls and YouTube, data proved otherwise: only two numbers ever contacted it, and it was never online.
Quick Jury Verdict and Tough Words from NCA
After the evidence was laid out, a jury at Canterbury Crown Court took just two hours to find Tukalo guilty. He was slapped with an 11-year term behind bars.
Derek Evans, NCA Operations Manager, said: “Tukalo tried to exploit his job as a haulier to sneak Class A drugs into the UK. Thanks to rigorous border checks, his lorry was caught. The strong evidence led to a swift jury verdict. This sentence should warn anyone thinking of abusing our borders – you will be caught and punished.”
