A criminal courier who used cheap air fresheners and coffee granules to mask the smell of a 10kg cannabis consignment hidden in a secret car compartment has been jailed for more than three years.
Cherno Bah, 43, was caught out while travelling northbound on the M6 near Carlisle in February 4 amid tight lockdown restrictions which prevented all but essential travel.
A police patrol stopped his Volkswagen Passat close to Southwaite at 3.35pm.
Officers detected both the smell of extremely cheap air fresheners, Carlisle Crown Court heard, but overpowering even that was a strong cannabis odour.
An initial search yielded only £590 cash.
But prosecutor Tim Evans said: “He and the vehicle were taken to Carlisle police station and there, in a secret chamber behind the back seats, was found a significant quality of cannabis,” said prosecutor Tim Evans.
This comprised 10kg of female flowering plants valued by a police expert police at £100,000.
When police had accessed the specially constructed rear vehicle void, they found more crude attempts to mask the distinctive cannabis smell.
“The boot and the void were sprinkled with coffee granules,” said Mr Evans.
Numberplate recognition cameras showed the car had made nine, almost daily, 11-hour round trips between Scotland and the West Midlands.
Some £10,000 cash was recovered from Bah’s home and a phone containing further damning evidence was also taken from him.
He initially sought to claim his trips were made because he and a business partner were involved in importing food from The Gambia.
However, Bah, of Maryhill Road, Glasgow, later admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply, and also supplying the class B drug between December 1 and February 4.
Recorder Andrew Nuttall heard the former taxi driver had got into desperate financial straits after his marriage broke down.
Concluding that more than 40kg could have been transported during the illegal journeys, Recorder Nuttall jailed Bah for a total of 39 months.
