Immingham: Lorry driver smuggled £3m heroin with strawberry shipment

Edmundas Bruzas admitted smuggling and was sentenced at Grimsby Crown Court

A lorry driver who smuggled heroin worth an estimated £3m with a shipment of strawberries has been jailed.

Edmundas Bruzas, 56, of 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 until a receipt for whisky he had bought was found next to the drugs.

At Grimsby Crown Court on Monday, he admitted smuggling the drugs and was jailed for 12 years and six months.

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.

He declared 200 cigarettes and a bottle of whisky he bought on an outbound ferry before collecting the strawberries, but when his lorry was searched, the receipt was found in a carrier bag in his cab next to the hidden Class A drugs.

The Class A drugs found in the lorry had an estimated street value of £3m

The Border Force referred the discovery to the NCA and Bruzas was questioned over the 30kg drugs find.

In custody, he admitted buying the alcohol and said he did not know where he had put the receipt, according to the NCA.

When he was told the receipt was found next to the heroin, he refused to answer any more questions.

Officers also discovered three mobile phones, a SIM card and a note reading: "Are Customs doing a check on you?"

After sentencing, NCA operations manager Carl Barrass said: "It was impossible for Bruzas not to know his cab had heroin in it.

"When he realised we'd found his credit card receipt next to the drugs, he had no option but to admit his guilt.

"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."