A man caught transporting more than 10kg of cannabis, potentially worth £100,000, on the M6 in north Cumbria has been jailed.
Mirjam Kovaci, 22, was behind the wheel and the sole occupant of a Volvo S60 which was pulled over by two police officers close to Southwaite Services, between Penrith and Carlisle, on Thursday, February 2 this year.
Kovaci initially gave a false name and produced a Croatian identity card bearing false details. But as an officer sought to make phone checks, the driver then confessed he had produced bogus information and, prosecutor Andrew Evans told Carlisle Crown Court: “He gave his true name as Kovaci.”
Police searched the vehicle and found 10 packages of cannabis weighing in at 10.83kg. This had an estimated wholesale value of £34,000 to £39,000 but if sold on the street its value could reach £100,000.
It was incomprehensible, said the prosecutor, that the defendant had no awareness of the haul.
In court today, Kovaci, of Wheeleys Lane, Birmingham, admitted offences of possessing cannabis with intent to supply, having an identity document with improper intention and also simple possession of cocaine after two small bags of the class A drug were found in the pocket of a designer Moncler jacket in the vehicle.
Edmund Potts, defending, said Kovaci was realistic about the sentence heading his way. “He is a young man who was in over his head. He had been texted an address to take these drugs to. He has simply done as he is instructed,” said Mr Potts, who revealed that the defendant expected to be paid £150 for the journey.
“He is essentially just a delivery driver performing a limit role under direction.”
Imposing a 16-month prison sentence, which he noted could trigger deportation for an Albanian national believed to be in the UK illegally, Recorder Julian Shaw said: “I accept that you probably had little influence on those above you in the chain.
“Nevertheless you were involved in the significant transportation of a considerable amount of cannabis. You must have had some awareness and understanding of the scale of the operation in which you voluntarily engaged.”
Recorder Shaw also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs and bogus identity document.
