Ecstasy

But it's the elaborate way in which the shipments were made that's intriguing. Warren's cartel connections in Cali, Colombia had set up a front company, Conar Corporation, that ostensibly exported lead ingots. Inside these 28-tonne ingots, hidden from X-rays and unlikely to be found unless you knew exactly where to drill, were aluminium boxes of drugs.

One shipment was intercepted, but at the subsequent trial in 1993, Warren walked free. Clearly not lacking in bravado, Warren tried the same trick in 1997. The drugs were intercepted in Rotterdam, but even more intriguing was the revelation that the drugs' final destination was actually a winery in Bulgaria. From there, Warren intended to ship them back into the UK in bottles of Sauvignon. See? Whatever you can dream up, a smuggler will think of something wilder.

What's in the back of your van sir?

Not every pill ends up inside a gurning raver. The ever-vigilant customs officers get quite a few, too...

Sofa surfers In 1995, a gang brought £28 million of ecstasy into Britain inside used three-piece suites. They were busted after the Dutch salesman supplying the furniture grassed them up

Gnome insurance An unclaimed garden gnome was found in the baggage hall at Dover. Customs officers discovered that it contained 850g of ecstasy tablets

Mash get smashed Seventy kilos of pills were found hidden in a load of potatoes in a British registered lorry. Estimated street value? £2 million

On the buses A Liverpool coach firm running trips to Holland was revealed in 1995 to be a front for Ecstasy and speed smuggling. They brought £5 million of pills into the UK. A director got 18 years

Old story A Dutch-registered Citröen was discovered this year with 30,000 pills concealed in the tow bar and chassis. The driver told customs officers that he'd come to pick up antiques

Early days The first big haul of ecstasy coming into the UK was discovered in 1987, when 200,000 E's were discovered hidden inside the air tank of a low loader. Until then, most of the country's ecstasy had been coming by mail from America

Ted-E bear Two teddy bears were posted last year to England from Belgium. Unfortunately, a girl working in the Dover Customs mail room happened to be a soft toy enthusiast, and noticed that the stitching on the back of the bears was slightly unprofessional. Guess what? Each bear had 250 pills inside

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