A corrupt Border Force official has been sentenced to prison after he was caught selling MDMA in an investigation by the National Crime Agency.
Officers from the NCA’s Anti-Corruption Unit arrested Gareth Glynn Davies of Cleves Way, Ashford, in January 2020 after a surveillance operation triggered by a tip-off that he might be selling drugs.
He was sentenced, for supplying class A drugs, to five years and 11 months' imprisonment at Maidstone Crown Court on 30 May.
Officers employed a “range of undercover tactics” to surveil the 44-year-old, who was a Border Force field intelligence officer at Folkestone at the time, the NCA said.
On 21 January 2020, Davies supplied four pills to a contact as a taster, promising to sell them 5,000 more later.
He was arrested in a joint operation with the Border Force after handing over the pills.
Searches of his car and home address led to the recovery of a lock knife, rambo knife, machete, two knuckle dusters and a baton that should have been returned when he left a previous job at the Prison Service.
He was subsequently charged with two drug supply offences, and sacked from Border Force.
Davies pleaded guilty on 15 April 2024 to both counts on the indictment, ahead of his sentencing last week.
Dave Rock, from the NCA’s Anti-Corruption Unit, said: “It is a priority for the NCA to tackle insider threat and corruption at the border, and we work extremely closely with our colleagues at Border Force every day to prevent illegal drugs entering the UK.
“Davies thought he was beyond the reach of the law, willingly disclosing information that revealed his criminality.
“The class A drugs trade has a devastating impact on communities across the country, and Davies’ conviction today is a reminder to anyone involved that all those who play a part in it, however large or small, will face justice.”