A DUTCH drug courier caught at a North-East ferry port with £7m worth of cannabis in the back of his lorry has been jailed.

Driver Angelo Javier Raaijmakers was stopped with 1.2 tonnes of the drug hidden underneath bark chippings in his lorry when it arrived at North Shields on a ferry from Holland in February.

Today (Thursday), the 36-year-old was jailed for five years and three months when he appeared at Newcastle Crown Court.

Border Force officers stopped the vehicle when it arrived on a ferry from Ijmuiden, in Holland and searched the trailed, where they discovered packages of the drug hidden inside pallets underneath layers of bark chippings.

Once the drugs were recovered, Raaijmakers was handed to the National Crime Agency’s Border Policing Command and charged with attempting to import a Class B drug.

Mick Maloney, head of the NCA’s north east border investigation team, said: “This was a significant seizure, and we have brought to justice a man involved in a major attempt to smuggle illegal drugs worth many millions of pounds into the UK.

“Working with Border Force we continue to target couriers like Raaijmakers and disrupt the organised crime groups involved in trafficking illegal substances to the UK.”

Tony McMullin, Director of Border Force North, said: “We welcome this sentencing which should send a strong message to the criminals who think they can smuggle drugs into the United Kingdom.

“Border Force officers are on the front line to stop illegal drugs making it onto our streets and causing harm to our communities”.