Courier stopped with £190,000 of drugs told he may be deported

POLICE PULLED HIM OVER AS HE TRAVELLED THROUGH THE CITY

A BMW driver was caught with a boot full of drugs when the police stopped him in the act of couriering a huge stash.

Mergim Neziraj, 22, had been in the UK illegally for three months when the police pulled him over in Leicester’s Braunstone Lane East on the afternoon of Saturday, June 26, a court heard.

They found a number of vacuumpacked parcels of drugs with a street value of almost £190,000 in the vehicle.

Lynsey Knott, prosecuting, said: “The defendant got out of the car and ran off, but officers gave chase and detained him.

“He spoke little English but communicated the car wasn’t his and he had no insurance for it. He was arrested and the car was searched.

“There were 15 vacuum-packed one-kilo bags of cannabis inside holdalls in the boot.”

Miss Knott told Leicester Crown Court the drugs had an estimated street value of £187,500.

Neziraj, of Williton Road, Luton, admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply it, on the basis he was acting as a courier, and driving without insurance.

He claimed he was paid £300 to transport the drugs to an address in Leicester and was paid the money by a man previously unknown to him.

The prosecutor said he initially claimed not to know what the contents of the holdalls were.

She added: “The Crown does not dispute this defendant’s role was as a courier.”

Priya Bakshi, mitigating, said: “He came to this country from Albania three months before his arrest and came here looking for a better life.

“He met another Albanian man in a coffee shop the day before he was arrested and was told about a job of delivering some bags and he agreed to do it to earn a bit of cash.”

Sentencing Neziraj to six months in jail, Judge Robert Brown said: “Those involved in the supply of drugs commit serious offences.

“You shouldn’t have agreed to have couriered these drugs – and you will now go to prison for it. I take into account your age and the fact you have no previous convictions.

“You might not be released immediately after the sentence as the Home Office may decide to keep you in custody and deport you to Albania, but that’s a matter for them.”