Two tonnes of cannabis resin found in VAT-fraud swoop lorry in Staffordshire
Customs and Staffordshire Police officers raiding a lorry at Blythe Business Park during Operation Euripus, Britain's biggest anti-VAT-fraud swoop, found cannabis resin first put at one tonne and later reported as two tonnes. Three men were arrested, and a 32-year-old appeared before magistrates on drug-supply charges.
🇬🇧 Blythe Business Park, near Blythe Bridge, Staffordshire · United Kingdom
Officers from Customs and Excise and Staffordshire Police, taking part in Britain’s biggest
anti-VAT-fraud swoop, found cannabis resin hidden in a lorry at Blythe Business Park in
Staffordshire.[1]The discovery came during one of 70 raids on premises across the country
and at properties in Spain, carried out by 350 officers against an estimated £120 million
mobile-phone VAT fraud.[1][2]
Three arrests
Thirty-three men and six women were arrested across the operation as a whole.[1]At the
Blythe lorry, three men were arrested, and a 32-year-old appeared at Newcastle magistrates
court charged with supplying drugs.[1]The later account puts the haul at two tonnes of
resin worth £12 million; earlier same-week reports had put it at one tonne worth about
£5 million.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Early reports put the haul at one tonne worth about £5 million while the later Independent account reports two tonnes worth £12 million; this report uses the later figures.
The opened sources record no trial outcome for the 32-year-old charged or the other two arrested men.
2 July 2003 is the Wednesday of the swoop week named in the 3-4 July reports; no separate raid date was published.
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