Suitcase heroin smuggler jailed

The drugs were found in three suitcases

A smuggler caught with heroin with an estimated street value of £4.5m in his car has been jailed for eight years.

At Canterbury Crown Court last month, Stephen McNamee had admitted smuggling 220lb (100kg) of the drug.

He was arrested at Dover's Eastern Docks after HM Revenue and Customs officers found the drugs in three suitcases as he arrived on a ferry.

McNamee, aged 30, of Holyhead, Anglesey, was stopped as he arrived from Dunkirk in September.

The drugs were discovered in the stowed in the boot and rear passenger footwell of his car.

He was also sentenced at Canterbury, where Judge Adele Williams ordered that the 90 days he had already spent on remand should count towards his sentence.

HM Revenue and Customs confirmed that cocaine was also found in the vehicle that McNamee, a former employee of Norfolk Line ferries, was driving.

Malcolm Bragg, assistant director of criminal investigations, said: "Our investigators, working alongside detection officers from the UK Border Agency and prosecutors from Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office, continue to play a key role in protecting communities by reducing the availability of drugs on UK streets.

"Our efforts will continue to reduce the devastating impact drugs have on individuals and local communities."

Anyone with information on smuggled goods can call 0800 595000 or e-mail [e-mail].