wmlro.com: heroin smuggled in bacon shipment.
Philip Tasker, 43, and Darren Hunter, 41, have been jailed for 18 and 13 years respectively at Canterbury Crown Court. The two men, from Southport in north west England were convicted at the Crown Court that covers Dover docks after a van driven by Tasker was stopped and searched.
Tasker's van was stopped on 17th October 2008 and amongst what he described as "dodgy" bacon 126 suspicious packages were found. They tested positive for heroin and on further investigation a total of slightly less than 63kg of heroin was found, with a street value of around GBP3 million. Forensic tests showed that 24.11 kilos were at 100% purity.
He was convicted in 1 October 2009 having denied all knowledge of the packets.
But the investigation found a link to Hunter, a twice convicted drugs smuggler. He had arranged for Tasker to go to Belgium to collect the shipment. Hunter was arrested in January this year and in March pleaded guilty.
Although the drugs did not reach the streets, HMRC said, in a statement "Confiscation proceedings are in place to secure the proceeds of this crime for the public purse."
Due diligence information:
Philip Benjamin Tasker (date of birth 07/01/66), a self employed gardener, of Saunders Street, Southport, Merseyside
Darren John Hunter (date of birth 11/03/68) unemployed, of Kew Road, Southport, Merseyside,
Download PDF version of this page