An ‘incompetent’ criminal courier caught on the M6 with cocaine potentially worth £600,000 after flouting road rules has been jailed for 56 months.
Debt-ridden Lee Green, 37, took on the job in a bid to reduce arrears of £2,000 owed to crooks for his own substance use.
But Green came to grief on January 24 when two police officers saw his Peugeot travelling north close to Junction 39 near Shap at excessive speed, overtaking and failing to move over from lane three and with a defective rear light.
When stopped he appeared nervous and fidgety, Carlisle Crown Court heard, telling officers: “Someone has asked me to do the job. I didn’t even put them in the car.”
Green was referring to six separate 1kg packages of high purity cocaine found in the boot of a vehicle registered and insured to him, within an adapted hidey hole. The total haul of just over 6kg had a potential wholesale value of a quarter of a million pounds and an estimated street level value of £600,000.
Green was arrested and initially told police he was heading to the North East with a view to buying a dog, before revealing his true intention under the direction of others. When brought to court he admitted possessing the class A drug with intent to supply.
“There must be an element of him being a trusted courier with such a large consignment of drugs,” said prosecutor Gerard Rogerson.
Jacob Dyer, defending, said Green had been out of trouble since 2011 with a job and family, before a relationship breakdown and spiralling cocaine use saw him unemployed and heavily in debt.
Mr Dyer conceded Green, of St Gabriel’s Close, Leigh, had been stopped by police in his own car because of his speed, road position and vehicle condition.
“As a courier, he was totally incompetent,” said the barrister.
Judge Nicholas Barker jailed Green for four years, eight months, saying of the money that would have been made from any cocaine sale: “That would have ended up in the organised crime world. That would have created more misery for those who take the drugs, such as yourself, and more misery for those that are caught up in that organised crime.”
