A 77 YEAR-old Midland gran is facing a lengthy jail sentence after smuggling £1 MILLION of cocaine into the country in her Motability vehicle.
Ambrozine Heron, from Smethwick, and her daughter Paulette Chambers, 49, were caught with a car full of the Class A drug as they tried to drive through Dover ferry port.
The pair made 14 trips to the continent to collect their shipments from Holland and would fool customs officials by using the ailing granny as a cover for their smuggling. But the family business came unstuck when Heron’s Nissan Pathfinder was stopped at Dover by customs who discovered 40 food tins containing the pure cocaine.
The mum and daughter also conned London taxi driver Edmund Anderson, 47, into driving them on the drug runs. He was acquitted of any involvement in the smuggling by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court.
Heron now faces a lengthy prison sentence after being found guilty of the importation of Class A drugs. Her daughter had already admitted her part in the smuggling operation. Both women will be sentenced on October 6.
Heron had initially claimed her daughter was having an affair with Mr Anderson, claims which he vehemently denied. The cabbie told the court he had no idea what went on after dropping the pair off at a flat in Almera, near Amsterdam.
Heron, who suffers from asthma, diabetes and arthritis, was stopped at Dover by customs officers already suspicious because of the high number of trips the Pathfinder had made to the continent since October 2007.
Sniffer dogs soon homed in on two shopping bags on the back row of seats and investigators found 40 tins of palm oil which contained the drugs worth just over £1 million.
When questioned by police, Heron denied drug smuggling said: ”I don’t know anything about that.
“I just went with my daughter. I didn’t ask any questions because I’m not a nosy person.
”I don’t smoke or drink. What am I doing with drugs?”
Heron had lived in the Midlands since her arrival from Jamaica in 1949 - and had never been in trouble with the police previously.
28-09-2008, 21:09
Similar Threads
Threaded Mode