Warning To Parents As Lollipops Packed With Cocaine Are Seized By Customs

Warning To Parents As Lollipops Packed With Cocaine Are Seized By Customs

Alamy

Parents have been warned about a deadly menace being smuggled into Britain: cocaine-filled LOLLIPOPS.

Customs chiefs said the sweets would be 'almost certainly fatal' if they were eaten by an unsuspecting child.

The warning came after officials seized £200,000 worth of cocaine stashed inside professionally-made lollipops and wrapped inside colourful plastic.

Hundreds of the sweets packed with lethal amounts were found by UK Border Force officers at an airport in Ghana.

UKBF officials based at capital Accra's airport found the cocaine after cutting through the outer shell of the lollies.

A 29-year-old Ghanaian man was arrested after the bags were discovered inside a briefcase.

UKBF customs director Tom Dowdall said: "The fact that the drugs were concealed inside lollipops, that would be almost certainly fatal if eaten, make this smuggling attempt all the more shocking and dangerous."

Home Office minister Mark Harper said: "Disguising a deadly drug as a harmless bag of children's sweets shows the depths people sink to in order to smuggle drugs.

"The international drug trade is a vile business that Border Force officers play a key part in disrupting."

British officials have been working in Ghana for six years to crack down on drug smugglers using the West African state as a route into Britain.

In that time they have seized 860 kilos of cocaine and 323 kilos of heroin while arresting 170 drug couriers.

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