A woman who smuggled an arsenal of “terrifying weapons” and £500,000 worth of heroin into Britain in her Peugeot has been jailed for nine years.
Kasha Sanderson was stopped on 24 February last year after arriving in Dover on a ferry from Calais in her Irish-registered Peugeot 3008.
Questioned about what she had been doing in France, the unemployed 40-year-old said she had been scattering ashes in Lyon.
But on searching the car, Border Force officers found two custom-built hides in its footwells containing 13 guns, 289 rounds of ammunition, and 5kg of heroin.
The stash of military-grade weapons comprised two Skorpion sub machine guns, an Uzi sub machine gun, a Glock handgun, and nine converted blank-firing pistols.
The heroin had a street value of £500,000, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA).
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Under questioning, Sanderson of Naishcombe Hill, Wick, Bristol, claimed she thought she was smuggling cannabis.
She later admitted smuggling firearms, ammunition, and Class A drugs, and was sentenced to nine years in jail at Canterbury Crown Court on Thursday.
NCA branch commander Rachel Bramley said: “Thanks to a brilliant detection by our Border Force partners and the NCA investigation, these terrifying weapons and ammunition are out of the hands of extremely dangerous criminals.
“Firearms crime in the UK is among the lowest in the world, but these guns had the potential to cause horrific damage.
“We have seen in recent years the tragic consequences of entirely innocent victims getting caught in the crossfire of criminals with automatic weapons such as Skorpion machine pistols.
“With Sanderson’s jailing, the organised crime group behind this smuggling plot have lost a trusted courier and profits they are unable to plough back into further offences.”
