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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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14 years for smugglers of biggest cannabis haul Auslan Cramb Telegraph Wednesday 13 Dec 2000 THREE Dutch drug smugglers were each given the maximum 14-year sentences yesterday after being caught with the biggest haul of cannabis seized in Scotland. Lord Hardie told the High Court in Edinburgh that he would have imposed heavier sentences had the law allowed. Customs officers found 285 bales of cannabis resin, weighing eight tonnes and with a street value of up to £43 million, when they boarded the yacht Red Scorpion off the north coast of Scotland in June. The skipper, Albert Hulst, 43, with Chrisian Ekkebus, 29, and Arjeh Vandijk, 33, initially denied smuggling, but after five weeks of evidence they changed their pleas to guilty when the Crown dropped an allegation that the cannabis was destined for Britain. The judge added: "Everyone engaged in the drugs trade, whether they are dealers, smugglers or couriers, should be aware that British territorial waters, or international waters off the coast of Great Britain, are not a safe route for their evil trade." The court heard that it was the largest quantity of drugs seized in Scotland, and the most valuable consignment of cannabis, although there had been smaller seizures of hard drugs with a higher street value. Hulst had picked up the cannabis in Morocco and was heading for a rendezvous in the North Sea with a small vessel that would have taken the drugs to Holland, when the Customs cutter Searcher intercepted the yacht 120 miles off Aberdeen. If they had been caught in their home country, they would have faced a maximum term of only four years. Defence lawyers insisted that all three were only "mules" or couriers, and that others had set up the deal. But Lord Hardie said that on the evidence he had heard they were part of an organised group of international drug smugglers rather than people who were tricked into acting as couriers, and all had hoped for a share of the profits. The judge praised the vigilance of the Customs commander, David Hargreaves, 49, and the crew of the Searcher, whose professional manner and meticulous notes, as well as a video record of their boarding, had made the successful prosecution "a foregone conclusion".
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