Royal Mail gets whiff of cannabis sent in greeting cards

ROYAL MAIL has reported a rise in dark web dealers sending drugs through one of its sorting offices.

A number of Christmas and greetings cards containing cannabis have been intercepted in recent days at Royal Mail’s office in Swindon, addressed to destinations nationwide.

Police were alerted by staff who could smell the class B drug through the envelope.

Insp David Tippets, from South Swindon Police, said the force had identified around 30 similar packages in Swindon over the last six months.

“It’s normally cannabis, because it’s got such a strong smell, if it’s in an envelope and there’s an obvious lump it gets easily identified,” he said.

“Some dealing must go on online but in Swindon we deal with the more traditional methods of dealing, with a customer being supplied directly or by a runner as a cash business.

“Certainly the birthday card we found is still effectively supplying controlled drugs. Money doesn’t have to change hands for it to be an offence.

“Generally, what we do is seize the item at the sorting office and it gets destroyed and we record it as intelligence.”

Police can have difficulty in tracking down the senders of drugs by post.

It has become a popular method among dealers who use encrypted online market places to sell and deal drugs which are then concealed in harmless-looking packages and cards.

Around 800 cases of posted drugs are thought to have been reported in the past year.

Royal Mail said it was asking postal staff to report to their managers any suspicious items.