Designer puppy smuggler caught red-handed… with her kids in tow as decoy

A PUPPY smuggler trying to traffic thousands of pounds worth of designer dogs into Scotland took her six and eight-year-old children on a round trip to Dublin in an attempt to beat the police.

However, the 24-year-old, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was caught with four pugaliers (a pug/king charles spaniel cross)as she boarded a ferry to Wales.

It’s understood she travelled from Scotland to Holyhead Port by train and then took the overnight ferry to Ireland to avoid the authorities.

However, customs’ officers had been tipped off.

An operational insider revealed: “This was a sophisticated effort to try and outwit the authorities.

“We believe the children were used to help her look less suspicious. The plan was to have a quick turn around, back to the UK in under three hours, having met her contact in the Dublin Port car park.

“But intelligence had been shared from agencies in Scotland and she was stopped on the way back.”

In November a Sunday Post investigation revealed how Irish puppy farmers were making millions by flooding Scotland with dogs.

The puppies, born on remote farms in rural Ireland, are kept in cramped, squalid and filthy cages.

They are then deliberately starved to make them lethargic and less yappy so they can be transported to Scotland in hidden, smuggling compartments.

Adult dogs are often put in with them, again to keep the pups calm, which are often killed as soon as they cross the Irish Sea.

The smuggling network then sees the pups sold from fake family homes in Scotland, designed to give the appearance of legitimate businesses. It’s thought the syndicates behind the operation are pocketing £20 million-a-year.

A spokeswoman for the DSPCA said: “We are now involved in a follow-up investigation into this matter. The puppies will remain in our care.

“We welcome the ongoing vigilance of customs officers and the Department of Agriculture in this matter.”