Taxi driver jailed after jacket found with £49k of drugs in liningA TAXI driver who was sent a jacket with £49,000 worth of heroin hidden in the lining has been jailed for a total of four-and-a-half years.
Lakbir Basra, of Maple Avenue, Exhall, pleaded guilty at the crown court at Leamington to being involved in the illegal importation of heroin.
The 42-year-old also admitted to two similar charges in relation to the class B drug phenobarbytol and the class C drug Alprazolam, which he had received in previous packages from India.
Prosecutor Mike Conry said that on July 27 Border Agency officers at the Parcelforce depot in Coventry intercepted a parcel addressed to Basra’s home.
It contained a black men’s jacket – but when they cut it open they found eight packages in the lining.
An analysis showed the packages contained 982 grams of heroin with a street-value of at least £49,000.
The police were told, and after the heroin was replaced with a harmless powder, the parcel was re-sealed and delivered to Basara’s home.
Basra answered the door and signed for the parcel. Police moved in and began a search of the house. As well as the jacket, they found eight black plastic packages in an area where the children’s school bags were kept.
Those packages contained 166 grams of Alprazolam and six packages of a mixture of paracetamol and caffeine.
The officers also found nine packages weighing 908 grams of phenobarbytol.
Sukhdev Garcha, defending, said the other two drugs were powerful sedatives which can be used to ‘bulk up’ heroin.
Arguing that Basra’s role was akin to a courier, he said: “He is a hard-working man who has been in this country for 16 years.
“He fell into debt and tried to keep the extent of the debt from his family and, in fear of losing the family home, when he was approached he took part in what is before Your Honour.”
Recorder Malcolm Morse jailed Basra for three-and-a-half years for the heroin offence, with a consecutive 12-month sentence in relation to the other two drugs.
He told Basra: “You have pleaded guilty to three crimes that concern the importation of forbidden drugs.
“The drugs in the second and third charges are not only drugs in themselves, but are sometimes used in mixing with heroin.
Mr Garcha has said I should treat you as if you were a courier of these drugs. I don’t agree.
“In my judgement you are an important and necessary part of the chain of supply into this country, although you are closer to the street dealers that you are to the wholesale suppliers.”
source:
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/
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