i l l:T701 _Ai B N icola Barber is at that awkward age.
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Old enough to ask blunt and difficult questions, too young to understand the sometimes complex answers. Innocent, but full of intrigue, like every other fouryear-old in the land.
Mother Mitzie is left struggling with the poser that her daughter has repeatedly fired at her since 30 September, when her truck driver husband John was thrown into a decaying, overcrowded French prison for a drug smuggling offence he insists he did not commit.
"Where's daddy?" is a gut-wrencher on normal days, but Christmas morning is bound to be particularly distressing "I'm dreading it. She's not going to have her daddy there and she'll want to know where he is. It's as simple as that.
Emotional
"She misses him; she's a daddy's girl. I have to say he's at work because she's too young to understand. It's terribly emotional for me. I open his letters and try not to cry in front of her but it really is difficult."
With another daughter, Victoria, just 10 months old, Mitzie Barber could be forgiven for not being in the party mood this Christmas. No salary coming in, no sign of a trial date and not much chance of making the near 1,000-mile trek to Bayonne prison from West Wales until the New Year. Life on income support does not lend itself well to fighting tough and drawn-out legal battles on foreign soils.
Since Commercial Motor highlighted the case of Billy Daniels in September, concern has been mounting over the number of potentially innocent drivers serving long sentences for drug smuggling.
Daniels completed four-and-a-half years of a 10-year sentence for having been convicted of bringing Dm worth of cannabis into Britain through Dover.
Despite strong doubts about his guilt, the courts held him solely responsible.
Protection
Now drivers are becoming increasingly angry that the law appears to offer them no protection against drug cartels who use them as "mules" to ferry narcotics around the Continent. Experts believe a significant number are languishing in foreign prisons, although nobody seems to be monitoring the problem properly, The Foreign Office says the number of Britons being held in south-west France has risen by 400% in the past year alone. Of the 85 in custody, 71 are on drugs charges. It is not known how many are truck drivers.
Bayonne prison, where Barber is incarcerated, is currently said to house nearly 50 Britons. Built in Napoleonic times for 69 inmates it now accommodates 140. Between them, they share two showers and do their own washing in buckets of cold water in their cells An angry Mitzie Barber pulls no punches in her description of it.
"It's a real shit-hole, really dilapidated. John shares a cell with another British man now but before that he was in with two French blokes. They set upon him and nicked a lot of his stuff. He's finding it hard to cope."
Barber's plight began when customs officials at the French/Spanish border found 240kg of cannabis worth £750,000, in his cargo of Spanish oranges. He denied all knowledge of the drugs. In a prepared statement to friends at home he described his arrest.
"I was handcuffed, stripped of my belt and shoes and told to empty my pockets. I was then put in a cell where I was detained for about four hours. I was not read my rights or given a phone call. I could not believe what was happening to me."
His wife says she only discovered his arrest after he had not been in touch for three days. She claims neither the French nor British authorities made any effort to contact her. By the time she discovered the truth, she was just glad he was alive.
"In one sense I felt totally sick but there was relief too that I didn't have a dead husband. For a long time afterwards I just couldn't believe it."
During an ill-fated trip to the prison shortly after his arrest, Mitzie Barber had her passport stolen and phoned home to discover her grandmother had died and both her children were sick. When she finally got to Bayonne she was allowed one hour with John. They spent most of it crying.
"I had written about 50 letters by then but he'd only received half a dozen. He thought I had disowned him."
Angry
Two months on, Mitzie's mood is as much angry as upset. She has been advised that if John's remand, which could last up to two years, is to be comfortable, she must send at least £50 a month for basic supplies such as toilet paper, soap, stamps and writing paper. With £80 a week income support and the mortgage in arrears, the sums don't add up.
Worse still, if her husband is found guilty he could be fined 10% of the value of the haul, or £75,000. If his family does not cough up, another two years may be added to his prison term. Diplomats' claims that the French system is no better or worse than Britain's, just different, will bring little solace to the Barbers A spokesman for the British Consulate in Bordeaux says: "There has been an intensification in France in the fight against drugs, particularly in this area. Police and customs can, and do, sell drivers' vehicles to finance that fight."
He believes the tougher stance is due to two factors. First, the misconception among many would-be drug smugglers that the opening of borders under the Single Market meant free movement in everything. And second, the fact that French customs officials, freed from vetting piles of paperwork, are stepping up spot checks.
"Customs have changed tactics. They're not just at the border now, they're all the way up the road."
London-based haulier Sid Selfe is convinced the problem is bigger than anyone suspects. Awaiting trial for allegedly smuggling millions of pounds worth of amphetamines through Dover, Selfe is the latest to protest his innocence. Like others, he has been alarmed to discover how exposed drivers under the law.
"They took my lorry off me, worth £70,000, and I could lose my house. If I'm found guilty I could get up to 18 years. "They can just pluck you out of nowhere and put you in prison, just like that."
Boss of his own firm, Selfe hit the road for Germany at a moment's notice one night to pick up an emergency load. He swapped trailers with a driver of his who was already in the Frankfurt area and headed for home, stopping briefly on the way. At Dover, his sealed trailer was opened and the drugs found.
Innocence
Selfe admits he's one of the lucky ones. He's got good friends who haven't questioned his innocence. Together they put up the massive £200,000 bail demanded by the High Court to free him.
He maintains that during one weekend in Canterbury prison, no less than 16 drivers were remanded in custody for drugs offences. However, Customs does not record the mode of road transport used in smuggling.
Back in West Wales, Mitzie Barber clings to the hope that the Examining Magistrate in France finds some scrap of evidence to prove her husband's innocence and end the nightmare. Her next move? "Sit, wait, and pray that they drop the charges."
El by Pat Hagan