Coach driver jailed for trying to smuggle £18 million of cocaine into the UK on a children's school bus

Searched: Border Force officers found 140kg of cocaine on the coach
National Crime Agency
Laura Proto11 March 2016
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A coach driver has been jailed after attempting to smuggle cocaine worth £18 million in to the UK on a bus bringing schoolchildren on a trip to London.

Border Force officers stopped a coach being driven by Romanian Ioan Buciuta as it arrived in Dover on June 6 last year.

Officers found 130 tape-wrapped packages of drugs, weighing a total of 140kg, behind a false bulkhead in the luggage compartment.

A panel covering the drugs had been screwed into place and then covered with carpet.

Buciuta, 53, was arrested and the school party were forced to continue their journey in taxis.

Found: The drugs were stashed behind a fake bulkhead in the luggage compartment
National Crime Agency

During an interview with National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators, Buciuta claimed he did not know about the cocaine.

But further searches of the vehicle found tools that would have been used to recover the drugs and glue used to stick the carpet down.

He was charged with importing a class A drug and later pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court.

He was sentenced to 17 years in prison at the same court on Friday.

Jailed: Coach driver Ioan Buciuta has been sentenced to 17 years in prison
National Crime Agency

During their investigation, NCA officers found that Buciuta was in contact with Romanian-based organised criminals up until he was arrested.

Matt Rivers, from the NCA’s Dover border investigation team, said: “Ioan Buciuta was a trusted courier, comfortable with the task of carrying millions of pounds of class A drugs across a continent.

“The fact he was happy to do so using the cover of a children’s school trip shows how cynical his criminal organisation is.

“Our close co-operation with our law enforcement colleagues both at home and abroad means we have been able to intercept a substantial quantity of class A drugs destined for London and beyond, and cause major disruption to the organised crime group behind this attempt.”

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