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Spain ignores crime squad
Page 18
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PRESSURE GROUP Fair Trials Abroad (FTA) is stepping up its campaign for the release of a British truck driver jailed in Spain for drug trafficking.
Last year Steven Toplass was -,cntenced to three-and-a-half years and fined 6600,000 after 400kg of cannabis was found in the ruck he was driving.
Toplass's employer is currently lacing charges in the UK relating to a conspiracy to import cannabis. the National Crime Squad found that Toplass was used to transport the drugs without his knowledge and so had no case to answer.
Despite this evidence in his favour, Toplass was convicted by the Spanish authorities.
An FTA spokesman says: "This case highlights the increasingly apparent danger that lorry drivers are open to exploitation as innocent drug mules for criminal enterprises. It is especially worrying that the Spanish authorities refuse to consider evidence from their UK counterparts indicating a gross miscarriage of justice, despite the desire of the EU to increase cooperation in such areas."
• Lincolnshire truck driver Graham Rowett who was convicted of drug trafficking in Morocco, faces another year in prison after failing to pay his £1.3m fine. Rowett's family protest his innocence.