11.04.08
A South African drugs smuggler caught with more than £26,000 worth of cannabis in his bag at Edinburgh Airport was jailed for 4 years yesterday. Cornelius Roets, 44, was stopped by customs officers after arriving on a flight from Amsterdam in February, having originally travelled from Johannesburg.
Mr Roets was flagged up on the immigration system because he had a previous conviction for drug smuggling. When customs officers asked if he had packed his bag himself, he told them it was packed by a man called Frank in South Africa, who paid him £1200 to take it to Scotland.
The officers opened his case and found 2 boxes wrapped in happy birthday paper containing 14.7 kilograms of cannabis plant stems and leaves. Mr Roets said he did not know what was in the bag, but admitted suspecting it was drugs. He said he knew it was an offence to bring cocaine into the UK but did not know that cannabis was illegal.
Mr Roets pleaded guilty earlier this month at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Sheriff Gordon Liddle said the sentence would have been 6 years had he not entered a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity.
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