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Ten years for drugs
Page 13
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A CHESHIRE truck driver has been jailed for 10 years for smuggling £2.7m worth of cannabis into the UK.
Ian John Bridgwater, of Marbury Quay. Dock Street, Ellesmere Port,Cheshire,pleaded not guilty but was convicted on a majority verdict at Bournemouth Crown Court.
The court heard that on 13 May last year Customs officers at Poole Ferryport stopped a truck being driven by Bridgwater and found a number of shrink-wrapped pallets of cannabis resin hidden behind a legitimate load. Bridgwater insisted throughout the trial that he had no idea the drugs were in his vehicle.
But Judge John Harrow said that Bridgwater had played a vital role in the supply chain.
After the trial a Customs spokesman said that while hard drugs were the main priority for drugs officers, they would continue to uphold the law relating to cannabis.
-This was an excellent detection by one of the Customs mobile teams," he adds. "Poole Ferryport should not be seen as a soft touch by smugglers."