A LORRY driver who smuggled £30 million worth of cocaine into the country for the promise of £10,000 has been put behind bars for 17 years.

Dutch national Marcel Keuken, 41, said he was threatened and pressured into taking the decision to smuggle 264kg of the Class A drug into the UK.

He was stopped by Border Force officers at Harwich International Port in June shortly after arriving via ferry from the Netherlands.

Ruth Zentler-Munro, prosecuting, at Chelmsford Crown Court, outlined how the high-purity cocaine was uncovered.

“When officers examined the contents of the trailer they discovered 22 pallets which contained frozen meat,” she said.

“Contained within the bottom pallets were a number of packages containing compressed cocaine.

“In total this was 264kg of cocaine with a purity ranging from between 72 per cent and 88 per cent.”

Following an investigation by the National Crime Agency, Keuken, from Ede, in the Netherlands, admitted importing a Class A drug. A Border Force field test showed the cocaine had an estimated street value of more than £30 million.

The smuggler was previously jailed for five years in 2010 after trying to import 333kg of the Class B drug hashish into his home country.

Allan Goh, mitigating, called upon the judge to grant Keuken “some hope and a light at the end of the tunnel”.

“He is in a relationship with a lady who has two children, aged 14 and 16, and for some years now he has treated these two children as his own,” he said.

“He got into financial difficulty, there had been pressure put on him because of his earlier conviction attributed to the loss of the hashish.

“Threats had been made and rather stupidly he thought he could earn some money driving the lorry into the country.”

He added: “He accepts he was aware it was cocaine but he didn’t realise the full amount of what he was bringing over.”

Jailing him for 17 years, Judge Charles Gratwick said Keuken had attempted to import a vast amount of cocaine.

“It was an extremely valuable cargo,” he said. “Class A drugs bring with them nothing but misery, degradation and sometimes death to those who become addicted to them.

“Sometimes they turn to crime to feed that addiction.

“Not only are their lives ruined but the lives of those near and dear to them are also ruined.”