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Gatwick airport drugs smuggler
17 February 2012
An Essex woman who tried to smuggle 9kg of high purity cocaine through Gatwick airport has been jailed for 4 years.
Aimee Mason, 22, of Singleton Road, Dagenham, was stopped by our staff at the airport's South Terminal on 27 November last year.
Her baggage was searched and the class A drugs, which had a purity of around 70 per cent and an estimated street value of £360,000, were found hidden in one of her suitcases.
She told officers that she had been on holiday to Antigua with a friend. Despite claiming she never knew anything about the drugs when interviewed after her arrest, Mason pleaded guilty to a charge of drugs smuggling when she appeared at Croydon crown court yesterday (16 February). She was then sentenced to 4 years in jail.
Peter Avery, criminal financial investigation team, assistant director, UK Border Agency said:
'The UK Border Agency is at the forefront of the fight to stop drugs, weapons, other contraband and illegal immigrants entering the UK.
'Let this case serve as a warning to those who may think they can elude our controls, we have the ability to detect and bring you to justice.'
Alongside a dedicated presence at our ports and airports, we also have specialist criminal and financial investigation teams across the country that work to identify those involved in smuggling and immigration crime, be they the smuggler or wider criminal gang.
Anyone with information about activity they suspect may be linked to drug smuggling can call the smuggling hotline on 0800 59 5000.