Danish Heathrow cocaine smuggler sentenced

Border Force agents nabbed man with illegal drugs worth millions of kroner

Thomas Bendiks Norgreen, a 21-year-old Danish man, has been found guilty of trying to smuggle cocaine with a street value of nearly 9 million kroner into the UK. 

He was stopped by Border Force agents at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 in London in July of last year. He had just arrived from Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, via Panama and the Bahamas. He claimed he was visiting the UK for a holiday.

A search of his baggage turned up seven bottles of alcohol full of a thick brown liquid. The liquid tested positive for cocaine. 

Further tests revealed there were nearly eight kilos of cocaine dissolved in the liquid in the bottles. Norgreen was charged with attempting to import a class A drug into the UK

Guilty as charged
He appeared at Isleworth Crown Court last Friday, where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.

“This was an excellent seizure by Border Force officers and I’ve no doubt that this harmful drug was destined for the streets of the UK,” Marc Owen, the head of the Border Force at Heathrow, said in a statement.

“This will have put a significant dent into the profits of the criminals involved. We are determined to do all we can to prevent drug smuggling and put those responsible behind bars.”

READ MORE: 100 kilos of cocaine seized in Aarhus

The Border Force is a law enforcement command within the British Home Office responsible for protecting the UK border.


Four of the bottles used in the attempt to smuggle the cocaine into the UK (photo: Border Force)

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