WANTED: On-the-run heroin-smuggler David Birks faces 20 years' jail

AN on-the-run drug smuggler has been found guilty in his absence and sentenced to 20 years in prison for importing £1.8 million worth of heroin.

David Birks (42) was arrested at his home address in Dale Street, Rawmarsh, by officers from the National Crime Agency’s Border Policing Command in April 2014 in connection with a consignment of heroin seized in Dover the previous month.

The drugs had been discovered when Border Force officers searched a rented flatbed truck and found a holdall containing tape-wrapped packages of heroin under a seat in the cab. 

The drugs, if cut and sold in the UK, would have had a combined likely potential street value of £1.8 million.

NCA investigators were able to show that Birks had driven out to Belgium on the same day as the truck.

He met the driver, a Lithuanian national, near Turnhout in Belgium, loaded the drugs into the cab in a black holdall, and then returned to the UK separately.

Birks was arrested and charged with importing a class A drug, but prior to the start of his trial he absconded.

Today he was sentenced to 20 years in prison at Canterbury Crown Court.

A warrant has now been issued for his arrest.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts can contact Crimestoppers anonymously  on 0800 555111.