Taxi pulled over on M6 - and £400k of cocaine found inside
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Drver Tanzeel Rehman - a 'trusted courier' - was jailed for four-and-a-half years over huge stash
Image: Birmingham Mail
A Birmingham taxi driver who was a "trusted courier" in a drug smuggling racket has been jailed - after £400,000-worth of cocaine was found behind the passenger seat.
Tanzeel Rehman was returning from a trip to Luton with a consignment of high-purity cocaine when he was stopped as he left the M6 at Castle Bromwich.
National Crime Agency officers who had been monitoring his journey found four one-kilo blocks of cocaine, with a purity of 98 per cent, behind the passenger seat.
No figure was given during Rehman’s hearing but other recent cases suggest the drug could have been worth at least £400,000 once it had been divided into street deals.
Rehman, 24, of Kemp Road, Stechford, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing cocaine with intent to supply it.
Simon Burch, prosecuting, said four individual wraps of cocaine, for Rehman's use, were also found in a tin in the driver's door.
Warwick Crown Court heard traffic cameras showed Rehman had driven to Luton and meet someone in another car, which was "clearly where an exchange took place".
Simon Burch, prosecuting, said Rehman, who had no previous convictions, then immediately set off to drive back to the Midlands.
He added: “We are unable to prove anything other than that the defendant was a courier.”
Tarlochan Dubb, defending, conceded: “On any view, he’s about to receive a very significant sentence indeed.
“My best point is that he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity at this court, and the prosecution accept the basis that he is no more and no less than a trusted courier.
“He’s been a taxi driver for three years, and apart from this he’s led a law-abiding and useful life. His family are utterly devastated at the predicament he now finds himself in.”
Judge Peter Cooke told Rehman: “Notwithstanding your youth and your lack of antecedents, it is apparent that you had lent yourself to a class A drug dealing enterprise in which, no doubt for a reward, you were prepared to play the role of courier.
“Your occupation as a taxi driver made your movements appear innocuous, but you were found in possession of four packages of very high purity cocaine.”
The judge also ordered the confiscation and destruction of a phone found in the car, which had been used as a sat-nav to guide Rehmam to his Luton rendezvous.