A picture of the fake ambulance the accused are alleged to have used to smuggle drugs
Arrogant Dutch smugglers drove a fake ambulance into the UK "rammed" to the roof with more than £38 million of cocaine and heroin, a court has heard.
Leonardus Bijlsma and Dennis Vogelaar were part of an "organised criminal gang" who attempted to sneak "a massive haul of drugs" under the noses of British police, according to prosecutors.
A Birmingham Crown Court jury was today told the two were part of a four-man team equipped with bogus paramedic uniforms and a letter purporting to be from a Dutch patient being taken to a London hospital for treatment.
Robert Davies, prosecuting, said that inside the back of the ambulance, concealed behind metal-riveted panels in "hides", were neatly stacked packets of class A drugs including £60,000 of ecstasy tablets.
But also concealed in the compartments, in colour-coded parcels, was 193kg of "top quality" cocaine with a street value of more than £30 million, and 74kg of heroin worth £8 million in deals.
Mr Davies, opening the case for the Crown, described it as "an absolutely enormous amount of class A drugs".
He added: "In truth the ambulance was rammed with drugs."
Mr Davies also told the jury of seven women and five men that the fake ambulance journeys had been "going on over weeks and months".
The ambulance was seized by officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) who arrested Bijlsma, Vogelaar and two other men when the group met up in Smethwick in the West Midlands on June 16.
Both men were later charged with conspiracy to smuggle class A drugs into the UK, between April 2014 and summer this year.
Bijlsma, 55, and of Hoofddorp, and 28-year-old Vogelaar, of Vijfhuizen, deny the offences.
Mr Davies told the jurors: "If you had been on the road on June 16 this year you may have seen in your rear view mirror an ambulance.
No comments:
Post a Comment