chauffeur from Kent has been jailed for eight years after being caught smuggling £300,000 of drugs into Britain hidden inside cans of beer.

 

Stephen Leon, 49, was stopped by border officials in his Lexus at the Channel Tunnel entrance in Coquelles in northern France on July 28 last year.

He claimed he had been visiting the Continent to view churches in France and Belgium before stopping off at Calais to buy some beer.

But when border officials opened one of the cans from his eight cases, they found it contained orange tablets, later found to be the Class A drug 2C-B.

The relatively-unknown drug - similar in effect to ecstasy and LSD - weighed around 33lb (15kg) and had an estimated street value of £300,000.

Leon, of Bonar Place, Chislehurst, was jailed on Tuesday after being found guilty of drug smuggling by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court, the UK Border Agency said.

Malcolm Bragg, the UKBA's criminal and financial assistant director, said: "I hope the sentence handed out here shows that we, and our law enforcement colleagues, are serious about tackling the criminals responsible for bringing illegal drugs into Britain.

"The UK Border Agency has robust controls in place and this intervention shows we will not hesitate to take the strongest possible action against those involved in drug smuggling."