Lorry Driver Jailed Over £500k Cocaine Haul at Dover Border
Gitanas Eitmanavicius, 48, from Kaunas, Lithuania, has been jailed for six and a half years at Canterbury Crown Court. He tried to smuggle a £500,000 stash of cocaine hidden in his lorry through Dover border controls.
From Sofas to Serious Crime
Eitmanavicius claimed at first he was delivering packages of tobacco and food for a contact he met in the Netherlands. But he later admitted he knew the parcels were loaded with class A drugs.
Border Force officers inspected his vehicle in September while he was heading to hastings/" title="Hastings" data-wpil-keyword-link="linked">Hastings with a load of sofas. They found three taped packages concealed inside the air conditioning unit above the cab, plus two more hidden behind the driver and passenger seats.
National Crime Agency Hits Back
The cocaine haul tested positive and was valued at around half a million pounds if sold on UK streets. The National Crime Agency (NCA) launched the probe following the discovery.
“The class A drugs trade is almost always linked to serious and organised crime, with people and communities feeling the true cost,” said NCA Dover Branch Commander Martin Grace. “This seizure stopped a considerable amount of cocaine from reaching users in the UK and causing harm, and the man who tried to bring it in is now behind bars.”
“Working with partners like Border Force we are determined to do all we can to disrupt the organised crime networks who profit from this business.”
