'Arrogant' ambulance drug smugglers pressed on with plan after being stopped
The Dutch ring-leaders of an audacious operation to bring huge quantities of drugs into the UK using fake ambulances had a run-in with British border officials the day before their arrest but pressed on with their plan.
On their final run, Leonardus Bijlsma and Olof Schoon were stopped at the Channel Tunnel entrance in France by UK Border Force officers who found what prosecutors described as a “drug dealer’s list” in the boot of the men’s car.
The list was confiscated by the border officials but the smugglers “arrogantly” continued on their journey.
But a day later, when they arrived at their destination, they walked into a trap.
Schoon, who prosecutor Robert Davies said was the “central player”, and “right-hand man” Bijlsma crossed the channel on June 15, later re-writing the list.
Mr Davies said: “They carried on, some might say arrogantly.
“By the time they got to the meeting in Smethwick, the list was re-written and they were good to go again.”
On the list were names, addresses, telephone numbers and data entries which corresponded with packets of drugs packed inside the back of the ambulance.
The pair drove on to a rendezvous with the ambulance near a scrapyard in Smethwick in the West Midlands, meeting up the next morning at about 10.15am.
Gang Used Fake Ambulances In £1.6bn Drug Plot https://t.co/4OCAZFNhUR
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When Bijlsma, of Hoofddorp, and Schoon, both of Amsterdam, got out and “shook hands” with bogus ambulance driver 51-year-old Richard Engelsbel, the men were arrested in a swoop by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers.
The ambulance at the scene was found “rammed” to the roof with cocaine, heroin and ecstasy.
NCA officers found seven hides in the rear of the ambulance concealed behind riveted metal plates and into which were neatly stacked and wrapped hundreds of packets of drugs.
