Home removal driver stopped at UK border with £2.5m worth of cocaine stuffed inside a piano

A home removal driver was stopped by UK Border Force officials with £2.5 million worth of cocaine stuffed inside a piano.

Francesco Role, 45, claimed he had driven from Dieppe, France, when he was quizzed at the border at Newhaven, East Sussex, in November last year. His van was searched, with officers finding numerous items of furniture.

However, a suspicious looking piano was further examined, and it became clear it had been tampered with. Once opened, officers found 89 blocks of high purity cocaine, said to be worth around £2.5 million, Manchester Crown Court heard.

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Role, of Salford, was arrested and told officers that he was self-employed in home removals and regularly worked across Europe. He said he was using the Dieppe to Newhaven route because of the ‘migrant problem’ around Calais, and said he was hired to move some furniture to an address in Leighton Buzzard.

Further enquiries revealed that the address was never expecting such a delivery, prosecutor Phil Barnes said.

Three devices including Role’s personal phone, a ‘work phone’ and a tablet were also recovered. Despite refusing to provide a PIN for the devices, analysts were able to find that Role’s ‘work phone’ was actually an encrypted device known as a ‘Vladimir’, which worked similarly to Encrochat, the encrypted messaging system used exclusively by organised crime groups which was infiltrated in 2020.

The court heard that paperwork provided to the Border Force officials, claiming that Role had travelled the route was incorrect, with cell site analysis showing that his phone’s were picked up in Belgium and the Netherlands.

“It became plain that the paperwork had been