Postman jailed over £1.2m drugs delivery operation

A POSTMAN caught delivering cannabis in parcels on his delivery route has been jailed for his part in a £1.2million drugs operation.

Adewale Aderounmu, a Parcelforce Worldwide driver, would intercept the bogus parcels and hand them to accomplices in a drugs ring, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

Border Force officers swooped after noticing a suspicious number of cannabis parcels they seized were bound for NW10 or NW11 – north-west London – which was Aderounmu’s route.

The 55-year-old, of south London, was jailed for seven and a half years at the Old Bailey yesterday after admitting conspiracy to supply Class B drugs in August last year. He had worked for Parcelforce Worldwide for more than a decade when he was arrested.

Prosecutors said bundles of cannabis were often posted to his route from Nigeria and South Africa. In October 2016, the Border Force stopped one package with almost 6kg of cannabis that was destined for a non-existent address in NW1. Investigators swapped it for a dummy parcel and put it into Aderounmu’s load, then watched as he handed it to another man on the street.

Officers combing back through previously seized drug parcels found around 100 had been sent to the postcode between 2010 and 2016. They contained drugs with a street value of £1.2 million.

Cash payments of between £100 and £400 regularly dropped into Aderounmu’s bank account between 2014 and 2016, but they stopped after his arrest.