Fake ambulance drugs gang in £1.2bn smuggling racket jailed for a combined 70 years

Olof Schoon, Leonardus Bijlsma and Richard Engelsbel were part of an audacious plot which saw them enter the UK with ambulances packed with cocaine and heroin 45 times before finally being arrested in Smethwick.

Bijlsma, who was said to be Schoon's 'right-hand man' received a higher sentence of 28 years as he had denied knowledge of the plot and was found guilty after trial.

Engelsbel was described as the pair's 'eyes and ears' in the ambulance. Whereas both Schoon and Bijlsma would fly into the UK before meeting up with the ambulance to avoid the risk of being caught with the drugs at customs, Englesbel was responsible for bringing the ambulance into the country on many occasions. He was jailed for 18 years.All three were told they would serve half of their sentences before being released on licence.

Judge Francis Laird QC said: "I am satisfied this was a highly sophisticated and meticulously planned conspiracy involving the importation of class A drugs on a truly colossal scale."

Bijlsma, 55, from Hoofddorp near Amsterdam, was found guilty of involvement in the conspiracy, while Schoon and 51-year-old Engelsbel, both also from the Amsterdam area, admitted their parts in the plot.

They were arrested in June this year near a Dutch-registered ambulance on a car park in Smethwick.

National Crime Agency officers found numerous one-kilogram "wraps" of high purity cocaine and heroin with a wholesale value of around £10 million hidden in secret compartments inside the vehicle.

Subsequent inquiries established that 44 similar trips using ferries linking Rotterdam and Hull, and the Hook of Holland to Harwich, had taken place from April 2014, including one involving a "patient" on crutches.

Judge Laird said: "The Dutch financial investigation found that the conspiracy was operated in the same way as a legitimate business, with records and invoices kept.

"Paperwork was created to give the impression that the income of the business came from insurance companies who were paying out on policies that covered travellers for illness and accidents.

"Having heard evidence over a number of days, I am satisfied this was a highly sophisticated, meticulously planned and well-executed conspiracy involving the importation of Class A drugs on a truly colossal scale."

Ruling that the drugs brought into Britain probably had a street value of between £1 billion and £1.2 billion, the judge told Schoon: "I am satisfied you put together a team of conspirators.

"You therefore played a leading role in the conspiracy's formation and execution."

The judge said Schoon - who also ran firms named Schoon Investments and International Cab Services - would have received an even longer sentence if he had not admitted his guilt.

Judge Laird told the former taxi driver: "There may have been others involved in this conspiracy, perhaps at your level or even higher.

"That does not diminish the importance of the leading role that you played. You set up this conspiracy and you controlled it."