Speed Reading: UL Drug Smugglers Sentenced

Smugglers who hid £1.3 million of speed in shelves destined for the University Library were handed six year prison sentences yesterday.

Hungarians Sandor Szabo, 45, and Csaba Hollo, 36, hid 132kg of amphetamines on roller shelves loaded on their lorry.

The shelves, which were on the way to the UL, could be closed allowing the crooks to hide their haul in them.

But the UK Border Agency stopped the pair’s lorry at Ramsgate port in September 2009 as they tried to enter the country.

Suspicious authorities found the drugs stashed in the lorry after questioning the pair.

Roller shelves: great for hiding your speed in

The University were keen to distance themselves from the incident. Stuart Roberts from the University Press office told The Tab: “The shelves never even made it here. The first we heard about this was when we got the call from the UK Border Agency.”

But not everyone was so quick to condemn the haul. John’s 2nd year and avid UL fan Ysemay Hackett-Evans told The Tab: “If we discovered that on our trips to the UL, it’d make a day’s reading so much more fun. Shame it was discovered, I say.”

In court, the smugglers denied having any knowledge of the drugs. But the pair were convicted yesterday, after Szabo failed to explain text messages on his phone referring to a “bag full of money”.

The judge threw the book at them, and the pair now face six years in prison.