Fake ambulance drugs trial: I can't read, claims accused

Leonardus Bijlsma is alleged to have been a key figure in a massive drugs smuggling operation involving a fleet of specially-adapted vehicles.

The jury at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday was told by prosecutors that the 'lucrative criminal conspiracy' fronted by a bogus ambulance company in Holland may have seen up to £420 million in 'top-quality' class A drugs reach the UK, with a street value four times higher.

When National Crime Agency – NCA – officers swooped on a meeting near a scrap yard in Smethwick, in June, they found an ambulance 'rammed' to the roof with over £38 million in drugs, said Robert Davies, prosecuting.

Bijlsma was arrested alongside the driver and co-defendant Dennis Vogelaar, both of Amsterdam, and two other men – Olof Schoon, aged 38, and 51-year-old Richard Engelsbel. The jury has already been told that Schoon and Engelsbel have admitted conspiracy to supply drugs.

In interview, 56-year-old Bijlsma told officers he had left school aged 14, and had only been in the UK to look at an old BMW to scrap.

Yesterday jurors heard that when told the ambulance was piled high with drugs, hidden behind riveted metal panels in the rear, he replied: "I have nothing to do with drugs, it's not for me."

Bijlsma had travelled to Smethwick with Schoon in a Mercedes, in which was found a diary full of names, numbers and addresses together with references to the dozens of colour-coded packets concealed in the ambulance.

Asked about the diary, Bijlsma, who alleged he ran a handyman company, replied: "I don't know, I can't read."

He added: "You can say it's a drug dealer's list, but I don't know. I can't read.

"You're guessing. But it's not mine."

Bijlsma, of Hoofddorp, claimed he had accompanied the scheme's alleged mastermind Schoon to the UK only 'one or two times' before and 'never' alone.

He said he only knew Schoon because he would occasionally do maintenance work for his private ambulance company.

However, when NCA officers revealed flight records showing Bijlsma had made repeated trips coinciding with ambulances arriving in the UK, he replied: "No comment."

Vogelaar, who said he used to be a window cleaner, was asked if he was aware there were millions of pounds in drugs in the back of his ambulance. He told officers: "No, nothing. I really had no clue there was anything in that ambulance."

Inside the ambulance concealed in six hides were neatly-stacked packets of drugs including 193kg of cocaine with a street value of more than £30 million, and 74kg of heroin worth £8 million in individual deals.

Bijlsma and Vogelaar both deny any wrong-doing. The trial continues.