08 August 2023 , 13:48
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Customs officers discovered heroin being smuggled into Jersey hidden as Cadbury Eclairs.
The Jersey Customs and Immigration Service has endured a busy two-week spell as its staff seized significant quantities of controlled drugs.
They were made up of seven consignments of commercial quantities of drugs made up of cocaine, heroin, MDMA and cannabis with a total potential street value of over £400,000. Among them were packages of heroin hidden within chocolate wrappers mixed with genuine sweet treats.
Seizures were made from an arriving passenger, postal parcels and in freight. The discoveries resulted in three house searches, four arrests, one charge and another three released on Customs bail pending further investigations.
More of the drugs recently discovered by officials (Jersey Customs and Immigration Service)Jersey Customs and Immigration Service Senior Manager Luke Goddard said: “The recent multiple seizures made by our teams at the ports, which includes controlling postal and freight traffic, demonstrate the ability of this Service to prevent dangerous drugs from entering the Island.
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"Despite the resulting high workload from investigating these cases, which are still ongoing, we have been able to simultaneously deal with peak passenger numbers coming through the ports and not unduly delaying the travelling public.”
Last month it was reported Canadian grandmother Wendy Jane Marais is facing life in a hell-hole Filipino prison for allegedly trying to smuggle more than 7kg of methamphetamine wrapped in truffles into the country. The 64-year-old flew long-haul from Mexico to Narita, Japan, where she boarded a connecting flight before arriving at Ninoy Aquino International Aiport in Manila on June 30.
Officials searched her checked-in luggage and pulled out several packets of Elvan Truffle Assortment chocolates, which looked like souvenirs from abroad. When police opened the bags, they found the sweets had allegedly been painstakingly swapped with narcotics rolled into balls labelled 'BBB'.
Wendy was immediately detained in an airport holding cell and now faces life behind bars in a "hell hole" jail.
Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said: 'We received information from international intelligence sources that Marais was involved in smuggling illegal drugs from Mexico to Manila.'
As a result, the BI's Anti-Terrorist Group immediately verified her arrival and successfully identified her to allow the BOC to conduct the search.
In 2020 a woman was jailed when she tried to sneak cocaine into the country by stuffing it in three Kinder Eggs on an EasyJet flight.
Kaylene Anne Carragher, from Kirkby, was found with the class A drugs with a street value of around £16,000 when she was stopped as got off the flight from Liverpool to Jersey.