By Lorry driver jailed for smuggling £3 million heroin in strawberry shipment
A lorry driver who smuggled an estimated £3 million worth of heroin in a shipment of strawberries has been jailed.
On March 25 Edmundas Bruzas, of County Wicklow, Ireland, was stopped by Border Force after arriving at the Port of Immingham from Rotterdam.
Bruzas, 56, denied knowing about the heroin until officers found a receipt for whisky he had bought next to the drugs.
At Grimsby Crown Court he admitted smuggling the drugs and was jailed for 12 years and six months.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Bruzas, a Lithuanian national, told officers he had no knowledge of the 60 blocks of heroin found in his lorry. He added that he had not been present when the cargo was loaded onto the vehicle.
He declared 200 cigarettes and a bottle of whisky he bought on an outbound ferry before collecting the shipment of strawberries.
However, when his lorry was searched, the receipt for the whisky was found in a carrier bag next to the hidden drugs.
Border Force referred the discovery to the NCA and Bruzas was questioned over the 30kg drugs find.
According to the NCA, he admitted to buying the alcohol but said he did not know where he had put the receipt.
When he was told where the receipt was found he refused to answer any more questions.
Officers also discovered three mobile phones, a SIM card and a note reading: “Are Customs doing a check on you?”
After sentencing, NCA operations manager Carl Barrass said: “It was impossible for Bruzas not to know his cab had heroin in it.
“When he realised we’d found his credit card receipt next to the drugs, he had no option but to admit his guilt.
“Bruzas’s conviction removes a drugs smuggler from an organised crime group which has also lost a significant amount of money that would have been ploughed back into further offending.”
