A GROUP in Reading is set to welcome a guest speaker for an open meeting later this month.
U3A, a learning co-operative of older people, is hosting one of the UK’s most prolific customs officers in the UK.
Malcolm Nelson will be giving a talk looking back over his 40 years working for HM Customs and Excise.
Predominantly based at Heathrow in London, he also worked across the European Union, including in Russia, Malta, and most major airports in Europe.
He is credited with the largest quantity of drugs by weight ever found in a single suitcase, after he found 42kg of cannabis hidden inside plantains which had been hollowed out.
He also led the first Customs and Excise Division to attain a Cabinet Office Charter Mark accreditation for service delivery,
He has published two books about his work: Forty Years Catching Smugglers and In Pursuit of the Two-Legged Mule.
Nelson will be giving his talk International Drug Smuggling, 40 Years of Catching Smugglers, which gives insights into international drug smuggling and how it is tackled.
It also examines the ways that customs officers select passengers who they think may be carrying drugs, including signs of somebody acting suspicious.
He is also a member of the British Society of Criminologists.
Malcolm Nelson is speaking at Reading U3A’s open meeting at Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, from 2pm on Monday, June 24.
