British drug smuggler sentenced to 8 years in prison

An appeals court in Szeged on Thursday sentenced a British citizen to 8 years in prison for attempted drug smuggling. The man, of Iraqi origin, was convicted of trying to smuggle 7 kilogrammes of opiates to the United Kingdom via Hungary. Under the binding ruling, he is to be expelled from Hungary for a period of eight years upon his release. The man was on his way back to the UK from Iraq when his car was checked by excise officers at the Roszke border station in southern Hungary on April 13, 2017. The officer inspecting his vehicle noticed that the car's spare tyre had been tampered with. The authorities deflated the tire before cutting it up to find seven packets containing morphine and codeine-based opiates.