A man who was driving a lorry load of beer into the UK has been jailed for six years and nine months after he tried to smuggle Class A drugs worth more than a million pounds into the country.
He became the subject of a National Crime Agency investigation after packages containing cocaine were found in the vehicle he was driving.
Officers from Border Force stopped the Lithuanian national on 21 August as he attempted to pass through the Port of Dover.
He had travelled from Germany, and was heading to an address in the UK, with a delivery load of beer.
When officers searched the vehicle, they found three packages wrapped in socks, each weighing a kilogram, hidden beneath the mattress of the bunk compartment. A further seven packages were found in the overhead locker.
Cirplys admitted to NCA officers that he had hidden the packages but believed them to contain tobacco. He told officers that they had been given to him in a parking area near the Dutch/Belgian border.
He was subsequently charged with attempting to import Class A drugs and remanded in custody until Friday’s sentencing.
The drugs, which weighed 10kg in total, would be worth approximately £1,010,000 if sold on the streets of the UK.
