A drug trafficker who claimed to be bringing dry ice for a London hospital and instead had a lorry with £22.8million worth of cocaine has been jailed.
Bart Verschueren, 40, was the man behind at least one drug operation which aimed to smuggle in 285kg of cocaine into the country.
On May 5 2020, an innocent part-time driver Verschueren had recruited was stopped at the Coquelles border controls in France by Border Force officers.
The driver’s paperwork claimed he was transporting dry ice for St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London.
But Verschueren had made up the recipient to avoid checks during the first Covid lockdown, and the hospital was in no way connected with the dry ice.
However, inside the lorry, hiding under the dry ice, were blocks of cocaine.
The driver was arrested and later released without charge when it became clear he was an innocent dupe.
Belgian Verschueren, of Sint-Katelijne-Waver, a municipality south of Antwerp, was convicted and jailed in his native country for other drug trafficking offences he committed in 2020 and 2021.
He was extradited to the UK in August 2024 and charged with smuggling 285kg of cocaine.
He denied the offence but was convicted by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court in March this year and was sentenced today.
The jury heard that the same vehicle he used for the failed smuggling attempt had successfully made it to the UK three times in the preceding weeks.
The prosecution counsel argued that there must have been drugs smuggled on the previous occasions, and Verschueren was sentenced on the basis that he trafficked at least 500kg of cocaine. He organised the importations under the cover of a transportation company he owned.
Peter Jones, NCA operations manager, said: ‘The NCA works at home and abroad to protect the public from the threat of Class A drugs, which wreck lives and our communities.
‘Bart Verschueren did everything possible to cheat justice. And he thought nothing of risking his driver’s freedom. When he knew his vehicle had been stopped, he reported his driver missing in a bid to distance himself from the importation.’