Leunis Rentier, who was pulled over by police on the A30 at Whiddon Down on May 1, denied smuggling 51,000 ecstacy tablets and 105 kilograms of cannabis ? with a street value of £650,000 ? from Holland to Devon, claiming he was unaware they were in the back of his articulated lorry trailer.
But at Exeter Crown Court last Thursday a jury revealed it was convinced the 47-year-old was involved in the smuggling operation and returned guilty verdicts.
Judge John Neligan said ecstacy had a potentially lethal effect which could occur very quickly.
?You were a vital part in this importation because you were the driver of the lorry bringing in the drugs. If the lorry had not been stopped those dangerous ecstasy tablets as well as the cannabis resin would have found their way inevitably onto the streets of the South West.
?Foreign nationals like yourself who are convicted of importing class A drugs into this country from abroad, must realise that the courts in this country will deal with them very severely indeed.?
Rentier, of Schoonhaven, near Rotterdam, maintained that he had picked the trailer up from a lorry park near Rotterdam and drove it to England believing he was delivering products to the Body Shop?s British distribution centre.
While the bulk of the contents was intended for the Body Shop, the drugs had been concealed among the pallets. Rentier was pulled over by the police on the A30 at Whiddon Down and a sniffer dog got excited when examining the load.
He was arrested when the drugs were found, and told police his instructions changed when he got to England and was told via telephone to drive to Tavistock instead of Littlehampton where the Body Shop was based.
The ecstasy tablets were of 25% purity, the court heard. Devon and Cornwall Police said afterwards that it was the largest ever seizure of class A drugs in the two counties. It was because of the Queen?s visit in May that police conducted random stop checks on the A30 as part of stepped up security measures.
A spokesman said: ?We are delighted to have removed such a quantity of drugs which otherwise would have been distributed around Devon and Cornwall. The verdict and sentence will send a message to drug carriers that the police are alert to this activity and that we will respond to any information about this type of activity.?