Men Smuggling Drugs Worth Up To £1.6bn In Fake Ambulance Found Guilty

The National Crime Agency (NCA) cracked the audacious plot in June when they tracked one ambulance into Harwich port and tailed it to a car park in Smethwick, Birmingham.

They pounced when Leonardus Bijlsma and Olof Schoon met the drug-laden ambulance being driven by fake paramedics Dennis Vogelaar and Richard Engelsbel.

The men have been found guilty of smuggling drugs worth up to £1.6bn into the UK using fake ambulances and paramedics, as well as bogus patients on crutches.

Dutchman Leonardus Bijlsma, 55, was the "right-hand man" in a group that brought the stash across the Channel and delivered it to organised crime groups.

Police found 193kg of cocaine, 74kg of heroin, 20,000 ecstasy tablets and 2kg of MDMA crystal hidden in one ambulance on 16 June.

The £38m stash was hidden behind panels, in cupboards and under the floor. 

The drugs were marked with different coloured tape that matched with a list of 20 customers found inside the vehicle.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) says the ambulances had made at least 45 trips to the UK in the 14 months before the seizure, with the drugs worth as much as £1.6bn.

CCTV of one of the drug runs showed the four men arriving in an ambulance with a bogus patient on crutches - who later was seen walking around unaided.