Lorry driver who tried to smuggle £650,000 of cocaine jailed

Lorry driver who tried to sneak GBP650,000 of cocaine into UK from Latvia hidden in battery space of his HGV is jailed for seven years

• Romans Gzibovskis, 38, travelled to the UK from Latvia in his HGV
• He was stopped at Dover’s  Eastern Docks on August 24 by Border Force
• Officers found GBP650,000 worth of cocaine stashed in battery space of the lorry
• Gzibovskis was yesterday jailed for seven years at Canterbury Crown Court  

By Olivia Devereux-evans For Mailonline

Published: 18:42, 10 December 2021 | Updated: 18:43, 10 December 2021

A lorry driver was yesterday jailed for seven years after trying to sneak GBP650,000 of cocaine into the UK hidden in the battery space of his HGV. 

Romans Gzibovskis, 38, travelled to the UK from Latvia in the lorry and had removed the large HGV battery, replacing it with smaller car batteries wired together.

Class A drugs were stashed into the space left between the power cells.

He was stopped at Dover’s Eastern Docks in Kent after travelling from Kastire in Latvia, on August 24.  

Romans Gzibovskis, 38, (pictured) travelled to the UK from Latvia in the lorry and had removed the large HGV battery, replacing it with smaller car batteries wired together

Officers from Border Force scanned the lorry, which was carrying empty plastic pallets, and saw something strange in the external battery compartment.  

Searches of the lorry found 16 kilos of cocaine and experts from the National Crime Agency estimated it would have been worth around GBP650,000 on the street.  

Gzibovskis pleased guilty to one count of being involved in the importation of a controlled drug at Canterbury Crown Court.

He was yesterday jailed for seven years at the same court.

Officers from Border Force scanned the lorry (pictured), which was carrying empty plastic pallets, and saw something strange in the external battery compartment

Mark Howes, branch commander at the NCA, said today: ‘Gzibovskis clearly thought this concealment method would leave his lethal cargo undetected.

Thankfully it didn’t.

‘Not only has it deprived organised criminals of their profits but prevented class A drugs from reaching our streets, where they fuel violence and exploitation of vulnerable people.

‘Working alongside Border Force, we will continue the fight against illegal drugs which pose such a threat to the public.’

Searches of the lorry (pictured) found 16 kilos of cocaine and experts from the National Crime Agency estimated it would have been worth around GBP650,000 on the street