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A man who claimed he had been visiting a Christmas market has been jailed for attempting to smuggle heroin worth almost £2m in his camper van.

Michael Sloan, 42, from Lancashire, was travelling through the Port of Dover when his van was searched by Border Force officers on 23 December 2019.

He was travelling with his partner and three children when he was stopped and the drugs found hidden in the vehicle.

Sloan was jailed at Canterbury Crown Court for six years and four months.

On Monday, Sloan, of Bridge Street in Ormskirk, pleaded guilty to smuggling class A drugs and was sentenced on the same day.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said packages of heroin were found concealed in a container in a storage compartment at the rear of his camper van.

Sloan, whose children were aged between one and six at the time they were stopped, told officers the family had been to a Christmas market in Cologne in Germany.

An NCA spokesman said: "Forensic experts found that the heroin was between 44 and 59 per cent pure, and once adulterated and sold would have had a street value of £1.98 million."

Almost 20kg of the drugs were found in Sloan's vehicle.

NCA Branch Commander Mark Howes said: "This was a cynical attempt to bring dangerous class A drugs into the UK, which saw Sloane use his partner and young children as cover for his drug smuggling exploits.

"I've no doubt that the concealment in the van was built specifically for the purpose of smuggling, and that Sloan thought that travelling with his family would make it less likely they would be stopped."

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