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Driver given 16 years for drug smuggling
Page 20
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An owner-driver is convicted after heroin with a value of C1.6m was discovered in concealed compartments.
A CHESHIRE OWNER-driver, who resorted to smuggling drugs to get out of financial difficulties, was jailed for 16 years at Newcastle Crown Court.
Colin Coombs, trading as Ralph Coombs Transport, of Martha11 Lane, 011erton, had pleaded not guilty to three counts of conspiring with others to smuggle cocaine, heroin, and cannabis into the country between 1 July and 12 December 2008, but was convicted after a week-long trial.
Caroline Goodwin, prosecuting, said the case involved the wholesale hulk importation of drugs Coombs had been on regular runs between England and the Continent. His attic had been stopped at the Humber Sea Terminal in Hull and substantial amounts of drugs were found concealed in the tank trailer.
When the tank was scanned, images showed packages hidden in a lead-lined compartment in the trailer bottom, Two compartments were welded inside the tank in which 177 packages
containing 87,2 kilos of heroin with a value of £1.6m, and 29.4kg of cannabis flowering tops with a value of £169,000 were found.
Traces of cocaine were also discovered when the interior of the compartments were swabbed.
When interviewed, Coombs had said that the tanker had been loaded with ferrous sulphate in Nordrum, Germany.
However, his tachograph records demonstrated that the tanker had not been loaded in Nordrum, and that the weighbridge ticket and delivery note produced were fakes.
Coombs claimed that he had thought it was cigarettes he was smuggling. Goodwin maintained that the purposebuilt compartments weren't for cigarettes or tobacco, but were designed to hide the transportation of drugs, hence the lead lining.
For Coombs, Tim Roberts QC said the motivation that led to the offences was the cancelling of his contract work. He was an individual with no previous convictions In passing sentence, Judge Richard Lowden said the offences had been committed for significant gain. Coombs was a hard-working man who had been hit by the recession, but that did not excuse the way he had tried to get out of financial difficulty This was a large, organised, sophisticated operation. He was confident that Coombs had not been the greatest beneficiary or the organiser. However, he had been an essential and enthusiastic participant for substantial reward.