DUPED TRUCKERS 'CAUGHT IN DRUG SMUGGLING WEB'

Transport leaders are demanding protection for lorry drivers as more than
400 fight smuggling charges in Europe's jails. Most insist that they were
used as unwitting couriers by drug gangs who are exploiting open borders
and the massive increase in lorry traffic.

Douglas Curtis of the United Road Transport Union (URTU) said: "The numbers
are frightening and we have no idea how many drivers are in jail outside
Europe, but the incidents are growing by the month. Of course some drivers
are guilty, but we estimate 60 per cent of the 420 we know about in
European jails are likely to be innocent dupes.

"Customs never arrest an airline pilot if drugs are on a plane, but they
believe drivers must know what is in a 23-tonne load they often pick up in
sealed containers."

Drivers are also finding that illegal immigrants are being smuggled into
their cargo containers as they wait to board ferries back to Britain. A
spokesman for the Road Haulage Association said: "In many cases, drivers
have alerted the authorities, handed over the immigrants and yet have been
arrested as accomplices. These incidents are growing, though not as fast as
incidents involving drugs."

More than a million lorries a year pass in and out of Britain. Mr Curtis
said: "British drivers have an enviable reputation of being willing to
drive wherever there is business and, with open borders, that is taking
truckers to the Soviet republics and then back through Europe and through
the most popular drug smuggling routes." A 41-year-old self-employed driver
from Hertfordshire, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is fighting
charges that last month he tried to smuggle UKP2 million-worth of cannabis
into Britain by channel ferry. His order had been to collect a load of
printing ink in Spain. He was puzzled when another lorry sat behind him on
the drive to Cherbourg.

He said: "At Cherbourg, the Customs were checking for immigrants, using
sniffer dogs to see if the roof on my trailer had been tampered with. At
the British port, Customs ordered me to stop and went straight for ten
boxes out of the full load I had on a 44-tonne truck."

Inside the lorry were 400kg of cannabis. "I pointed out the truck following
me that was accelerating away but no one would listen." The driver, now on
UKP10,000 bail, faces bankrutpcy because he is not allowed to leave the
country and is being sued by hauliers for not meeting deliveries.

Mr Curtis said: "While customs act on a tip on one truck, the more valuable
load slips through. Most drivers are one-man bands so find it hard to raise
money for legal costs. In countries outside Europe, the attitude is that if
drugs are found you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent."

Steve Bryant, 42, a father of four from northeast London, was sentenced to
12 years in March 1994 after three tonnes of cannabis was found in his load
of frozen squid following a search at Tangier. A factory owner had told him
to enjoy a break while the squid was loaded, and subsequently admitted that
the driver could have had no idea that drugs were hidden in the cargo.

Mr Bryant's father, Peter, said: "The Foreign Office doesn't care about
him. I send them UKP200 a month for his food and toiletries in the prison,
but I don't know how to fight his case any more."

Most of those in foreign prisons have only their families to protest to
their captors. Shirley Hobbs has lobbied Tony Blair about her
brother-in-law, Peter Hobbs, serving a 7 1/2 -year sentence for alleged
drug-smuggling in Bulgaria. She said: "Peter is innocent, even the British
police say so, but he has been left to rot." Hobbs and fellow-driver John
Mills, both 41, from Enfield, North London, were returning with an empty
lorry from Turkey when they were stopped by Bulgarian border guards, who
walked straight to the unlocked toolbox outside the cab and found 20kg of
heroin.

Martin Crowe, 31, from Bradford, was driving back from Malaga with a
consignment of ceramic tiles when a tyre burst and set fire to his trailer.
He called the emergency services. As the flames peeled away the packaging
around the tiles, there was the distinct odour of cannabis burning. More
than UKP600,000-worth was hidden in the cargo.

Despite his protests that he would hardly have alerted police if he knew
cannabis was on board, Mr Crowe was jailed by a French court. He spent more
than four months in prison before he was freed on appeal, but his vehicle
was confiscated.

Officials from the World Customs Organisation are to meet URTU leaders next
month, but Mr Curtis said "We need to sort this at inter-government level
in Europe so Customs can agree a way to deal with drivers. Europe has to
harmonise its approach."

David Higginbottom, general secretary of the URTU, added: "Drivers have to
be aware that they are targets for drug barons who see them as easy prey,
particularly those new to international routes and who aren't with big
companies or a union. Often these sorts of drivers are left for weeks in
custody before anyone knows they are there."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski