11:00am Saturday 24th July 2010
TWO men from Bicester have been jailed for a total of 16 years after being caught trying to smuggle £700,000 of cocaine into Gatwick Airport.
Ashley Keane, 22, and Christopher Clifford, 28, both from Sheep Street in Bicester, were caught with drugs in their luggage after being stopped at the airport on Monday, May 3.
They both admitted smuggling the class A drugs into the UK from Portugal and were jailed for eight years each at Croydon Crown Court on Thursday, July 15.
Clifford, a fork-lift driver, and Keane, a roofer, were each carrying around three kilos of liquid cocaine, which were discovered in small bottles in their wash bags.
Police said the drugs were worth an estimated £700,000 on the street.
Pc Tom French revealed the pair were caught following a joint stop and search operation with Thames Valley Police and the UK Border Agency.
Pc French said: “Drug smuggling is a problem that is occurring daily. They carry it in liquid form because of its transparency. If I were to give you a bottle of vodka, you would not notice the difference.
“Some swallow it in condoms and it sits in the stomach until they pass it. That has been going on for years.”
He added: “£700,000 is a tidy sum; if you are on the street and you want a gram of cocaine, it’s between £40 and £50.”
In a warning to anyone considering smuggling drugs, he said: “There is a high risk you will be stopped and searched, so don’t risk it.”
A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said the two men arrived at Gatwick on an easyJet flight from Lisbon.
He said they both claimed they had been on holiday in Peru from April 7, before flying to Madrid, Spain, and then on to Portugal.
Paul Bolton, acting assistant director of the UK Border Agency’s Criminal and Financial Investigations unit, said: “This case highlights the success of the UK Border Agency in disrupting the drug smuggling operations of criminal gangs.
“Cocaine is an illegal and dangerous substance and the smuggling of such harmful drugs is often linked to serious organised crime.
“The UK Border Agency, in partnership with other law enforcement agencies, will not hesitate to take action against anyone involved in smuggling.”
l Two other local men, Nathan Brandon, 21, from Abingdon, and travelling companion, Alan Rae, 39, from Faringdon, were accused last year of trying to smuggle 12.3 kilos of the drug from Peru.
The pair were arrested at Lima Airport and are still thought to be at Sarita Colonia men’s prison in Callao.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/trade_directory/