Skoda drugs gang jailed

The gang used rented Skodas to smuggle the heroin

Two members of an incompetent gang of drug runners who tried to smuggle heroin into Britain in the fuel tank of a Skoda have been jailed for a total of 21 years.

The criminals' first attempt to smuggle in a £500,000 consignment of the drug failed when it was ruined after being left to mix with diesel in the car's tank while it was driven across Europe.

The gang then attempted another drugs run using another Skoda, this time with £1m of heroin hidden in the fuel tank. It too was ruined.

Turkish national Levant Comert, 36, of Highbury, north London, was jailed for 10 years at London's Southwark Crown Court for smuggling heroin into Britain.

Czech courier Morislav Pelzer, was handed an 11-year sentence for the later smuggling attempt.

Judge George Bathurst-Norman told Comert that drug smugglers were "literally playing with the lives of other people".

Drugs washed in bath

The court heard how following the first smuggling attempt, between 28 August and 10 September last year, the gang members had tried to save the drugs by washing them with an alcoholic mix in a bath in a London safehouse.

But the mix was so powerful that when customs officers broke into the flat in Enfield, north London, they were overcome by the fumes.

The hired Skoda used by the gang was ruined and was towed to a council car pound. It was eventually returned to the Czech Republic.

Your [Pelzer's] continued presence would be contrary to the fundamental interests of the people in the country

Judge George Bathurst-Norman

Six days later, the smugglers rented the second Skoda and placed £1m worth of heroin in its fuel tank.

But customs officers, who had been tailing the gang for weeks, stopped the car at Dover and seized the 18 kilogrammes of heroin.

The drugs had once again been ruined by the diesel.

Pelzer, 41, who drove both Skodas, was cleared over the first drugs run after persuading the jury he believed it had been a dry run.

The judge recommended that he should be considered for deportation on his release.

"Your continued presence would be contrary to the fundamental interests of the people in the country," he told Pelzer.

Mehmet Bastemir, 38, and Mark Wapling, 30, who were caught trying to decontaminate the first batch of heroin, were both jailed for eight years earlier this year after admitting one count of harbouring the drug.