Ten Years For Chrystal Meth Smuggler

Fool's Gold: Thrower

A Suffolk drug smuggler, who was caught stepping off a plane at Heathrow with crystal methylamphetamine hidden inside his luggage, is starting a ten-year prison sentence after he was convicted by a jury.

Christopher Thrower, 37, of Station Road, Geldeston, was found guilty at Isleworth Crown Court yesterday of importing the speed-like stimulant on June 9, last year.

He was also made subject to a four-year travel restriction order after his release and must pay a £120 victim surcharge.

His co-defendant, builder and ex-musician Darren Cattermole, 41, of Meadowcroft, Hollow Lane, Mendam, Harleston, Norfolk was acquitted of importing a quantity of the drug on June 8.

The two separate seizures weighed a total of 5.89 kilos and had an approximate street value of £320,000.

Both were stopped by Border Force officers in Terminal Four after stepping off flights from Casablanca, Morocco last summer.

Their passports revealed both had travelled from Gambia to Burkina Faso on June 1 before buying one-way tickets back home.

Thrower was detained in the green 'nothing to declare' channel at 5.38pm carrying a brown suitcase and black rucksack.

He tried to avoid responsibility for the suitcase contents by claiming: "I think someone has broken my lock," because some plastic trim was missing, but the luggage was still padlocked.

The court heard a strong chemical smell was detected when the suitcase was opened and an x-ray revealed an "unusually large concealment" and a white crystal substance was discovered when the bag was spiked.

Not Guilty: Cattermole

When officers told Thrower they suspected he had imported drugs, the defendant replied: "What drugs?"

Thrower claimed he was a regular visitor to Gambia, often driving cars there to sell, and continued to receive £60-£70 a week from a local bus service he set-up with a mini-bus he drove over.

"I've got a bus there and I've been there quite a bit," he told the officers when questioned. "I use'd to drive there, taking the car to sell, and have a free holiday."

He travelled there after his driver crashed the bus he had driven over, he said, and was offered the opportunity to make £500 by travelling to Burkina Faso and transporting gold to the UK.

"I was offered one week of expenses, a paid holiday to Burkina Faso, plus five hundred pounds to take gold home."

His contacts provided the brown suitcase to transport the gold, explained Thrower, but the plan was scrapped at the last minute with a promise of £250 compensation when he arrived at Heathrow Airport.