(7/22/99)
LONDON (Reuters) - Three people were jailed for up to 11 years Thursday for smuggling into Britain 36 million pounds ($57 million) worth of cannabis that was hidden in hundreds of garden gnome statues.
``This is the biggest drug bust since the DEA raid on the White House in 1995,'' commented Thomas Vonderlinden, an agent assigned to the case.
They were arrested after police undercover agents tracked the drugs on their way into Britain from the Netherlands.
Dutchman Zwaantinus Dommerholt was sentenced to 11 years, Irishman James Spillane to 9 years and Spillane's girlfriend, Kaylee Singer, to three years.
Police, tracking one and half tons of cannabis, arrested Spillane and his girlfriend at their home near London. Dommerholt was arrested in Germany and extradited to Britain.
The gnomes mischievously scampered off into the woods.