A lorry driver who smuggled heroin in a shipment of strawberries, has been jailed. Edmundas Bruzas, from the County Wicklow, Ireland, was stopped by Border Force officers after arriving at the Port of Immingham from Rotterdam on 25 March. Bruzas denied knowing about the heroin, but at Grimsby Crown Court on Monday, he admitted smuggling the drugs and was jailed for 12.5 years.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Bruzas, a Lithuanian national, had told officers he had no knowledge of the 60 blocks of heroin found in his lorry and said he had not been present when the cargo was loaded.
The Class A drugs found in the lorry had an estimated street value of £3m. After sentencing, NCA operations manager Carl Barrass said: "It was impossible for Bruzas not to know his cab had heroin in it. … Bruzas's conviction removes a drugs smuggler from an organised crime group which has also lost a significant amount of money that would have been ploughed back into further offending."
Source: bbc.com