A man arrested trying to smuggle £4.8m worth of cannabis hidden in eight suitcases while travelling with his children has been jailed.
Fernando Fuster, 51, from Zaragoza in Spain, attempt to import close to 160kg (352lb) of the drug from Los Angeles into Manchester Airport.
He was stopped at the UK border by border force officers on 1 May in what the National Crime Agency (NCA) described as “one of the largest seizures of its kind”.
Fuster pleaded guilty to importing the drug and was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
Fuster had stuffed the suitcases with 278 separate packages of cannabis before his flight left the US, travelling via London Heathrow.
Three of the bags were checked-in under the names of his three children, who were travelling with him.
When he was arrested by NCA officers at Manchester, he told them a friend had given him the suitcases, adding “I’m in a lot of trouble”.
The cannabis had an estimated street value of £4.8m.
It was “shocking” that Fuster tried to bring the drugs in suitcases bearing the names of children, acting NCA branch commander Charles Lee said.
The children, aged between 11 and 15, are now by looked after by relatives, an agency spokesman confirmed.
