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Car dealer Ralph Ahmet tried to smuggle drugs worth £12 million into Kent in Winnebago

A “high end” car dealer tried to smuggle a cocktail of drugs – with a street value of £12 million - into Kent stashed in his Winnebago.

Ralph Ahmet - who has a home and his business in Dubai – has construction a hidden compartment inside the America-built 10 metre mobile vehicle.

He was stopped in September by UK Border Force officials in Coquelles and the 125 kilos of cocaine, heroin and cannabis were found near the petrol tank.

Ralph Ahmet tried to smuggle drugs into Kent in his Winnebago. Picture: UKBA
Ralph Ahmet tried to smuggle drugs into Kent in his Winnebago. Picture: UKBA

Now twice-married Ahmet, 56, has been given a 10 and a half year sentence after admitting three charges of drugs smuggling.

Prosecutor Shanda McAteer said the drugs had a wholesale value of £4m with the cocaine having a purity of between 75 to 85 per cent.

Defence barrister Paul Lamb told Canterbury Crown Court that the car dealer, who has served a jail term for drug smuggling, had invested £300,000 in a motor vehicle venture which failed.

Ahmet also had a gambling problem and decided to accept a £50,000 offer by unnamed dealers to drive the Moneybag from Germany to the UK.

“He accepts the stupidity of his actions which were borne out of desperation, “ he added.

Judge Rupert Lowe told him: “Those drugs were targeted all the unfortunates in the UK who have been persuaded to get addicted to drugs and who then commit crimes against everybody else in society.

“It was a direct fuelling of a drug and crime culture on a massive scale.”

The mobile home was seized by UK Border Force.

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