Latest News

Over the centuries, artists have used all sorts of materials in their compositions, from charcoal and paint, to acrylics and oils. However, a recent drugs bust at Stansted Airport suggests that a few Columbian painters have taken impressionism to new extremes, by painting with Class A drugs.

“The smugglers had covered the canvases with a layer of cocaine, and then literally painted over the drugs”, explained Sarah Wolstenholme, assistant director of the Stansted branch of the UK Border Agency. Ms. Wolstenholme noted that “the smell” coming from the package had given away the ruse, indicating that the paintings were “more than they seemed”.

Officials say that the extremely crude paintings would have had a street value of £10,000 if they had ever reached their destination, in Southwest London. The five abstract pictures contained, amongst other ingredients, 200g of cocaine, a quantity referred to as “relatively small” by the UK Border Agency.

Stansted Airport has become a preferred point of entry for people smuggling strange goods into the UK. On May 8, a 54-year-old woman was found to be carrying 15 tortoises in a lettuce-filled box. The amphibians, known as ‘spur-thighed’ tortoises, are classified as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but enjoy some popularity as (very expensive) garden pets. Their importation is, however, illegal without the correct paperwork.

Malcolm Bragg, assistant director of investigations at the UK Border Agency, said that the smuggling of animals was a “contributory factor” to the extinction of species, especially as many creatures do not survive their ordeal, or become seriously ill during transportation. The fifteen tortoises found at Stansted, for example, were found to be underweight and covered in tics.

Stansted’s captured paintings, marked as ‘shirts and paints’ in cargo dossiers, were discovered on a flight from South America in April this year. The smugglers had valued the shipment at $1, in a bid to evade the attentions of border officials.