Dover drug smuggler hid heroin in charcoal boxes
A man who tried to smuggle £11m worth of heroin into the UK by hiding it in boxes of charcoal has been jailed.
Vasil Stoyanov, 30, was caught by Border Force officers with a lorry-load of the class A drug at Dover Eastern Docks in June 2015.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the haul was estimated to be worth £3m wholesale and £11m on the street.
Stoyanov, who had pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to 14 years in prison at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday.
Following an NCA investigation, a border force officer found 130g of the drug powdered and sealed in a plastic bag stuck to the inside wall of one of the shipment's 2,000 cardboard boxes.
A search of the lorry's load found 228 boxes had heroin inside concealed in the same way.
The shipment was addressed to Lizzy86 Ltd, Stoyanov's company which was exposed as a front.
Cambridgeshire police officers searched his home in Swinburne Close, Kettering, and a nearby lock-up.
They found cut open charcoal boxes and documents showing he had spent £66,000 on three large orders of charcoal for a return of £67.
His eBay account listed just two lots of charcoal for sale at £3.50 each.
Mark Harding, senior investigating officer at the NCA, said: "The seizure means serious organised criminals have lost out on a huge revenue stream and street-level dealers won't be able to endanger heroin users and the communities in which they live.
"It's also shut down a smuggling route that could have been used to bring any kind of dangerous commodity into the country."