Drug Duo Caught Smuggling £3M Cocaine Haul
Two crooks from Germany and Romania have been slapped with lengthy jail terms after trying to sneak a whopping 39 kilos of cocaine into the UK. Marain Macovei, 25, from Germany, got 12 and a half years, while 25-year-old Iulian-Ioan Stratulat from Romania received nearly 16 years for their high-stakes drug smuggling plot.
Border Officers Sniff Out Secret Stash
The pair were stopped on August 29, 2020, at the UK border in Coquelles, France. Macovei was behind the wheel of a Renault Trafic van, with Stratulat claiming they were on a harmless day trip to London, carrying “post and beer”. But border officers weren’t buying it.
Stratulat was found carrying an encrypted phone, often used by criminals to dodge detection. A thorough search of the van revealed cleverly hidden taped packages behind plastic panels near the driver’s seat and further inside the vehicle.
The white powder inside the packages tested positive as cocaine – a total haul worth about £3 million once cut and sold on the streets, according to National Crime Agency (NCA) forensic experts.
Denied Everything Before Guilty Verdicts
During interviews with the NCA, both men denied any knowledge of the drugs and blamed each other for the smuggling attempt. Both initially pleaded not guilty. But on 12 February 2021, Macovei flipped and pleaded guilty. Stratulat was found guilty after a two-day trial on 24 February.
NCA Commander Hits Out at Class A Crime
Martin Grace, Branch Commander at the NCA, said: “This seizure and the investigation that followed has kept a huge quantity of cocaine off UK streets.”
“Marain Macovei and Iulian-Ioan Stratulat sought to make quick cash from a trade that fuels violence and exploitation throughout the UK and across the global supply chain.”
“The class A drugs trade is almost always linked to serious and organised crime, with local communities and the people within them suffering as a result.”
“Working with partners like Border Force, we are determined to do all we can to thwart the criminal networks involved in international drug trafficking.”
