A woman who was "seduced by her boyfirend's love" has been jailed after she smuggled both cocaine and ketamine in her luggage through Liverpool John Lennon Airport. Sian Banks, 25, from Liverpool, pleaded guilty on the first day of her trial after her fingerprints were also found on 90kg packages of ketamine she helped load onto one of two lorries, alongside her gangster boyfriend Eddie Burton, which were stopped at Dover. Burton, a seasoned drug supplier with convictions both in the UK and Germany, loaded over 300kg of class A and B drugs - with a street value of around £20m - onto the lorries to help pay off a debt.
However his offending, which saw him vacuum pack the drugs in an Amsterdam flat, didn't go unrewarded, with him reportedly earning between £20,000-30,000 a month for his role in the high level plot. Banks, who was said to be "seduced by her love for Burton and the love for the lifestyle she was living", not only helped with one of the lorry shipments., she also smuggled both cocaine and ketamine in her luggage through Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
Banks also allowed Burton access to her bank account to enable him to thrive while on the run in Europe, Liverpool Echo reported. The former love birds appeared for sentencing today, February 12 at Canterbury Crown Court. However, Burton, 23, claimed in a letter to the court that he had been coerced into the drug plot and Judge Simon Taylor KC adjourned his sentencing for a new basis of plea to be examined on the grounds of modern slavery.
But the sentencing of Banks continued under the assumption that she had believed he was solely involved in drug trafficking for profit. Paul Valder, prosecuting, told the court: "This case is about drug smuggling and drug supply. Those drugs being cocaine, heroin and ketamine. These defendants Eddie Burton and Sian Banks are, or were, partners. They are both from Liverpool. "Eddie Burton is a convicted drug supplier and he has now pleaded guilty to being a drug smuggler. Having been arrested and charged in the spring of 2021 for his part in a drug supply operation in Oswestry, Burton fled the country.
"He carried on playing his part in the drugs business whilst moving between Holland, Germany and Spain. He was involved on two occasions when very substantial consignments of drugs were smuggled into the UK by lorry via Dover. They amounted to 192 kg of cocaine, 25kg of heroin and 90 kg of ketamine. The defendant Sian Banks was linked forensically to one of those importations, her DNA being on the packaging surrounding some of the drugs.
"It is evident from her phone and other sources that she was a regular traveller between Liverpool and Holland or Spain to be with Burton. It is also evident from her phone that on two occasions she smuggled cocaine and/or ketamine back to the UK in her luggage on behalf of Burton to pass on to others, albeit there is no indication about how much those consignments were. "She allowed her bank accounts to receive money to support Burton while he was on the run in Europe. On a separate charge, she also provided forged Covid-19 passes to facilitate the travel of others between the UK and mainland Europe.".
Banks visited her partner again between June 24 and June 26 and a few days later the lorry laden with cocaine and ketamine began its journey. Messages between Banks and her friend referenced that he was involved in the drug plot because he needed to pay "Chog" back. She also observed that what she earned legitimately in a year Burton earned in a month. On July 3 Border Force officers stopped the lorry at the Dover freight lanes border and found boxes and a carrier back containing 50kg of cocaine and 90kg of ketamine, with a street value of over £6.5m.
