, Haulier caught up in shoot-out
Page 10
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• An Essex owner-driver has been jauiled for three years in Belgium for drug running because he was in "the wrong place at the wrong time" during a police shoot-out with a drugs gang,says his sister. Julie Marshall of Rainham says her brother Michael Wheeler was driving through Veurne in Belgium on 23 October last year en route to Calais From Italy when a car swerved in front of his lorry forcing him to pull over to the side of the road.
"Police dressed in civilian clothes jumped out of the car and pulled him out of the lorry," says Marshall. "I understand they beat Michael up and put a gun to his head." Marshall says a car following Wheeler's lorry was also stopped. "One of the two men in this car, where drugs were later found, started running away," she says. 'That is when shots were fired."
Although police and sniffer dogs Failed to find drugs in his trailer, Wheeler was arrested. Marshall says he was Forced to sign a document which later turned out to be admission of guilt, but that "he did not understand what he was signing".
Wheeler appeared in court last Tuesday (12 January).