It all went down when border force officers, probably fueled by too much coffee and a healthy dose of suspicion, decided to inspect a lorry that had just arrived from Spain. Imagine their surprise when they discovered not a cargo of olives or cheap wine, but a massive stash of very expensive white powder. The seizure weighed in at a staggering 319 kilograms – that’s about the weight of a grand piano, only far less musical and much more illegal.
To put that in perspective, that’s enough cocaine to give every single person in a small town a truly terrible Tuesday. Police estimate the street value at a mind-boggling £32 million. That’s more than the budget for a Michael Bay movie, and with significantly less explosions (until the police showed up, anyway).
Who Are These Geniuses?
So who are the masterminds behind this plan? The five men, ranging in age from their thirties to their sixties, are currently enjoying Her Majesty’s complimentary accommodation. They come from various places – London, Kent, and Derbyshire. Derbyshire. You have to love the ambition: someone from the Peak District decided to dabble in international drug smuggling. Maybe they were bored of the scenery.
Their grand scheme, apparently, was to bring the cocaine into the UK via a ferry. A ferry! It’s not exactly Mission: Impossible. It’s more like Mission: I’ll Have a Large Cappuccino and a Kilos of Class A Drugs, Please. You have to admire the sheer audacity of using one of the most heavily policed transport methods possible. It’s like trying to sneak a giraffe past a zookeeper.
