A 21-year-old man from Roosendaal was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison in the United Kingdom on Friday for smuggling one hundred kilos of ketamine in a van. A number of newspapers report this. The consignment of drugs is worth five million euros.
The Roosendaler, Mika V., was caught on store cameras, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA). On the images can be seen that he buys wood in a hardware store in Amsterdam to hide the drugs. He used those wood panels to make wall panels for a van behind which the ketamine was hidden.
Mika V. was arrested a year ago when he tried to enter the Channel Tunnel in France. Employees at the border noticed an imperfection in the wall panels of his vehicle, after which the batch of ketamine was discovered.
Mika V. denied that he was aware of the drugs. He told detectives after his arrest that he had rented the van to pick up a second-hand motorcycle in Coventry for a friend of a friend. He claimed the panels were installed by others to prevent damage to the bus.
According to the NCA, V. underestimated how authorities in England work together to tackle drug trafficking. “Fortunately we were able to stop him, because the use of hard drugs is harmful to health.”