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Liverpool pair plead guilty to smuggling £20 million worth of drugs through Port of Dover

A drug-smuggling couple have been convicted of trying to bring heroin, ketamine and cocaine worth £20 million into the country after police swooped on a nightclub in Ibiza.

Eddie Burton and his girlfriend Sian Banks were busted by the National Crime Agency (NCA) after two attempts to carry narcotics through the Port of Dover were intercepted.

Edward John Burton will be sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on February 11. Picture: National Crime Agency
Edward John Burton will be sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on February 11. Picture: National Crime Agency

23-year-old Burton, who was arrested in Pacha nightclub in Ibiza, had been living in mainland Europe at the time two lorries containing Class A and B drugs were stopped in the summer of 2022.

The substances weighed a combined 307 kilos with an estimated street value of £20m.

Border Force officers halted the first lorry on July 3 and found 90 kilos of ketamine and 50 kilos of cocaine packed into boxes and a Lidl shopping bag.

The second lorry was intercepted just six weeks later, on August 12.

Inside officers discovered 142 kilos of cocaine and 25 kilos of heroin in a fuel tank that had been modified to conceal the drugs.

Sian Banks pleaded guilty to seven charges including importing Class A drugs and money laundering
Sian Banks pleaded guilty to seven charges including importing Class A drugs and money laundering

Its driver, 64-year-old Latvian national Maris Fridvalds, was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment in March 2023 for his role as courier in the attempted importation while forensics found Burton's fingerprints and DNA on both drug consignments, and the adapted fuel tank.

Burton was arrested by Spanish police in August 2023 while at a club in Ibiza for unrelated drug dealing offences where it was found he was using an alias in an attempt to evade detection.

After being extradited to Germany and charged with drug offences, he was returned to the UK in March 2024 by specialist national extradition unit officers from the NCA's Joint International Crime Centre (JICC).

Burton subsequently pleaded guilty to four counts of importing Class A and B drugs.

Sian Banks pleaded guilty to a total of seven charges on February 3 at Canterbury Crown Court including importing Class A drugs and money laundering.

The drugs found across two separate smuggling operations into the Port of Dover were worth about £20 million. Picture: National Crime Agency
The drugs found across two separate smuggling operations into the Port of Dover were worth about £20 million. Picture: National Crime Agency

Banks was first arrested in December 2023.

Enquiries as part of the NCA's investigation found that between June 2022 and October 2023 she travelled to the Netherlands and Spain on a monthly basis to visit Burton.

A review of her phone evidenced that on two occasions in August 2022 she smuggled cocaine and ketamine into the UK in her luggage after visiting Burton in Amsterdam.

NCA investigators also uncovered messages sent between her and Burton on 5 July 2022 – two days after the first lorry carrying drugs was intercepted.

The messages indicated that she flew out to the Netherlands in late June and prepared the first shipment of drugs for transportation alongside him.

307 kilograms of drugs were intercepted at the Port of Dover. Picture: National Crime Agency
307 kilograms of drugs were intercepted at the Port of Dover. Picture: National Crime Agency

In one message she told Burton that her fingerprints were on the bags of ketamine and he replied: "You've never been nicked or had ye prints took anyway so doesn't matter".

She was also found to be operating a scam selling doctored Covid-19 travel documents in the height of the pandemic.

The pair, both from Liverpool, who are no longer a couple, will be sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court, next week on February 11.

NCA Branch Commander John Turner said:"Burton, with Banks' help, attempted to smuggle huge quantities of harmful drugs into the UK, believing he could operate with impunity overseas.

"Banks held a crucial role in the criminal enterprise, laundering the illicit profits and acting as the UK-based facilitator for the multi-million-pound drug importations.

"The drugs, had they reached their final destination, would have had a destructive impact on our communities, fuelling violence and exploiting vulnerable people throughout the supply chain."

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