Minicab drugs courier caught at M4 services is jailed A minicab driver who flooded South Wales with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of former legal high Meow Meow has been jailed for two years.
Vazrik Nazarian had almost six kilograms of the drug mephedrone hidden under the seats of his car when police became suspicious at an M4 service station.
And when the 43-year-old was questioned he admitted making four or five similar runs from London to South Wales.
Nazarian had stopped at the Leigh Delamere service station near Chippenham, Wiltshire, when police became suspicious about his insurance.
When they went to speak to him, the officers spotted what they thought was drugs paraphernalia in the car.
And when they took a closer look they found 10 large packages of mephedrone hidden under the seats on May 10.
Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court they found two packages, each weighing 1kg, and eight half kilo bags making a total weight just short of 6kg.
They also found a tin containing not only a small amount of a white crystalline substance but Nazarian’s library card as well.
Miss Squire said mephedrone, also known by the street name Meow Meow, retailed at £20 a gram, making the haul worth £119,000.
She said the wholesale price would be between £12,000 and £30,000 meaning the profit margin for it was higher than heroin, cocaine or crack.
When the driver was questioned he said he had been given £400 by a man in London called Louis to deliver the drugs to a "town near Cardiff".
He told officers he had made the trip on four or five previous occasions getting with details being sent to a mobile phone.
Nazarian, of Shepherd’s Bush, west London, pleaded guilty to possessing a class B drug with intent to supply.
Ashley Hendron, defending, said his client was simply acting as a courier trying to earn a bit more money and as a taxi driver was used to ferrying packages about.
Although he admitted doing it before he said it was after the police pointed out the cameras on the Severn Bridge would have spotted his car.
On the previous occasions he said he had not had the tin of drugs, which was a sample, or tester, and had not hidden them under the seat in the same way.
The library card was in the tin because his client had been interested to see what he was carrying.
He said he was a family man who had been a cabby for 22 years, most of which were working for Addison Lee, until he suffered a back injury.
Jailing him Judge Douglas Field said: “You were carrying the drug to Wales: you were doing so for a fee.
“You knew the amount that had been stowed underneath the seat, you knew it was drugs, you knew it was wrong, you had done it before: on each occasion you had been paid £400.”
source:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... z27Z7HSXMF
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