Smuggler in £100m drugs ring jailed for 18 years

Dutchman Jackie Heinen, 55, was yesterday described by a Bradford Crown Court judge as “a serious player” in the distribution of large quantities of class A drugs which were transported into the UK hidden in lorries from the continent.

Heinen, Yorkshire businessmen Andrew Varey, and his former girlfriend Maxine Robinson, were caught after customs officials in Calais randomly checked a German-owned lorry bound for the UK in August 2008 and found heroin and cannabis with a street value of £9m.

French police discovered the drugs, in heat-sealed packages on pallets, had been destined for Varey’s shopfitting business in Shipley, where Robinson worked as a secretary.

The German transport company which owned the lorry said it had been employed by a Dutch firm to transport what it believed were shopfitting parts to the UK.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday 13 previous deliveries had been made to the Shipley business in less than six months, suggesting more than 12 tonnes of drugs had been smuggled.

Last year, Varey and Robinson, who lived at Fairbank Place, Shipley, were jailed for a total of 32 years for conspiring to supply heroin and cannabis.

Now another jury at Bradford Crown Court has found Heinen guilty of similar drugs conspiracy charges in his absence.

Heinen had not travelled to Bradford from the Netherlands to stand trial but officers will now be seeking a European arrest warrant for the Dutchman so that he can be extradited back to the UK to start his jail term.

Sentencing Heinen, Judge Peter Benson described him as a “serious player” near to the heart of the conspiracy.

Judge Benson added there were very strong implications that each of the consignments sent to the shopfitters contained controlled drugs.

“In the circumstances these are very serious offences indeed and must attract a very significant custodial sentence,” he added.

Varey and Robinson were arrested on August 15, 2008 – a day after the lorry was checked at French customs.

Their trial was told that while they had claimed they had no knowledge of the shipments made to Shipley between March and August 2008, they had in fact signed for and helped unpack them.