When stopped at border controls in France, Ewout Groenenboom, 57, from Rotterdam, Netherlands, told immigration officials he was going to a three-day car auction at Silverstone race track. Suspicious officers searched his car after spotting that he had failed to buy a ticket for the auction, did not have a hotel room booked and was due to return before the end of the event. They discovered 110lbs of MDMA inside his side panels and spare wheel well beneath the boot mat of the 2002 reg car in July last year. Last week, the drug smuggler was handed 18 years behind bars after he was convicted of importing Class A drugs at Canterbury Crown Court. Groenenboom had gone to significant trouble to secrete a vast quantity of illegal and harmful drugs in his vehicle David Coe of the National Crime Agency, said: "Groenenboom's lies about enjoying a few days at Silverstone were obvious from the start. "The search of his car yielded a very large amount of MDMA and its recovery was a blow to organised crime between Holland and the UK." Paul Morgan, director of Border Force south east and Europe said: "Groenenboom had gone to significant trouble to secrete a vast quantity of illegal and harmful drugs in his vehicle. SWN 1 of 19 A cannabis smuggling gang shipped £20 million worth of the class B drug into Britain in rolled up carpets "Thanks to the professionalism and expertise of Border Force officers working at our border controls in northern France his smuggling attempt was unsuccessful. "Border Force works closely with law enforcement colleagues, including the NCA, to keep the public safe and the country secure. "We are determined to keep dangerous substances off the UK's streets and put the drug traffickers responsible behind bars."
