CONSIGNMENTS OF MISERY
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CASE ONE When officials stopped a vehicle at the French end of the Channel Tunnel in July last year they found 24 Asians hiding in a cargo of car parts. The driver, Phillip Arlon. from Littleover, near Derby, claimed he had been approached by two Asians in Germany and offered £8,000 to carry the men. He also alleged he had been threatened by a German man brandishing a gun. The court jailed him for two and a half years.
Eighteen illegal immigrants were found crammed into a trailer when a sniffer dog indicated to Customs officials at Dover that people were inside. When the trailer was opened, the cargo of lyres was stacked so it looked like a full load. But at the front of the trailer was a small area where the refugees were hiding. The driver, an Italian, was sentenced to 22 months in prison in November 1996.
CASE THREE This case illustrates how some drivers are bullied or coerced into smuggling illegal immigrants and how lucrative it is to terrorist organisations to run such a racket. Twenty-nine-year old Gavin Peacock, from Ulster, was frequently asked to pick up immigrants or drugs during his trips to mainland Britain. He repeatedly refused but changed his mind after being taken into an alleyway by members of the Irish National Liberation Army, beaten up and threatened with a cordless drill—which terrorists use to knee-cap their victims. He eventually agreed to a drug run. His vehicle was searched at Stranraer and found to contain ecstasy tablets worth up to £120,000 and 2200,000 worth of cannabis. He was jailed for three years.