Woman smuggled military grade guns and heroin

A woman has been jailed for nine years for smuggling military grade weapons, ammunition and heroin into the UK.

Kasha Sanderson, 40, was stopped at Dover Eastern Docks in February last year.

Border Force officers found 13 firearms, nearly 300 rounds of ammunition and 5kg of heroin concealed in her car.

National Crime Agency branch commander Rachel Bramley said: "Firearms crime in the UK is among the lowest in the world, but these guns had the potential to cause horrific damage."

She added: "These terrifying weapons and ammunition are out of the hands of extremely dangerous criminals."

Sanderson, Naishcombe Hill, Wick, Bristol, was stopped on 24 February last year after arriving on a ferry from Calais in an Irish-registered Peugeot 3008.

When questioned about what she had been doing abroad, she told officers she had been scattering ashes in Lyon, France.

She was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on Thursday.

The NCA said Border Force officers searched the vehicle and found two custom-built hides in the footwells.

Inside were 13 weapons, including two Skorpion sub machine guns, an Uzi sub machine gun, a Glock handgun and nine converted blank firing pistols.

Officers also recovered 289 rounds of ammunition and 5kg of heroin, which investigators said had an estimated street value of about £500,000.

Unemployed Sanderson was arrested. During interviews she claimed she thought she had been smuggling cannabis.

She later admitted importing firearms, ammunition and Class A drugs, and was sentenced on Thursday.

Bramley said: "We have seen in recent years the tragic consequences of entirely innocent victims getting caught in the crossfire of criminals with automatic weapons such as Skorpion machine pistols.

"With Sanderson's jailing, the organised crime group behind this smuggling plot have lost a trusted courier and profits they are unable to plough back into further offences."

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