A Belgian drug trafficker who tried to smuggle cocaine worth nearly £23 million into the UK by disguising it as a dry ice delivery for a London hospital has been jailed for 18 years.
Bart Verschueren, 40, was sentenced on Thursday at Canterbury Crown Court following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Investigators proved Verschueren was behind at least one drugs shipment involving 285kg of cocaine, with a street value of around £22.8m.
On May 5 2020, Border Force officers at Coquelles in France stopped an innocent part-time driver recruited by Verschueren. The driver’s paperwork claimed the dry ice cargo was bound for St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London.
However, Verschueren had invented the recipient to avoid scrutiny during the first Covid lockdown. Authorities confirmed the hospital had no knowledge or involvement with the shipment.
Hidden beneath the dry ice were blocks of cocaine. The driver was arrested but later released without charge after authorities realised he was an unwitting accomplice.
Verschueren, from Sint-Katelijne-Waver, near Antwerp, was already serving a sentence in Belgium for separate drug trafficking offences committed in 2020 and 2021. He was extradited to the UK in August 2024 and charged with attempting to smuggle the 285kg cocaine shipment.
He denied the charges but was found guilty by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court in March.
Jurors heard that the same vehicle involved in the failed smuggling attempt had successfully entered the UK three times in preceding weeks. Prosecutors argued that drugs had likely been smuggled during these earlier journeys, and Verschueren was sentenced based on trafficking at least 500kg of cocaine. He operated the scheme under the cover of a transport company he owned.
Peter Jones, NCA operations manager, said: “The NCA works at home and abroad to protect the public from the threat of Class A drugs which wreck lives and our communities.
“Bart Verschueren did everything possible to cheat justice. And he thought nothing of risking his driver’s freedom. When he knew his vehicle had been stopped, he reported his driver missing in a bid to distance himself from the importation.”
