A debt-laden drugs courier caught on the M6 near Tebay with a consignment potentially worth almost £185,000 has been handed a 33-month jail term.
Barry Simmons, 40, was stopped by officers as he travelled northbound along the motorway on August 15.
A bag of drugs was found on the rear seat. This comprised 10 kilos of amphetamine, two kilos of cannabis and a quantity of mephedrone. If sold in individual deals on the street, the haul’s total value could be almost £185,000, Carlisle Crown Court was told this afternoon.
Simmons had admitted to officers there were drugs present but stated there were none of class A. The hire vehicle he was driving was due to have been returned to Aberdeen Airport.
He pleaded guilty to possession of all three drugs with intent to supply. This was on the uncontested basis that he had acted as a courier while owing drug arrears.
Defence lawyer Julian Nutter explained this debt dated back to the most recent criminal conviction recorded by Simmons, for the importation of cannabis as he travelled into Manchester Airport. He was sentenced by a judge for that crime in 2021.
Simmons, of Winifred Road, Liverpool, had been put under pressure to act as a courier when caught in Cumbria. “He has been easy meat, used by others more sophisticated than he,” said Mr Nutter.
Simmons was jailed by Judge Nicholas Barker. “This is a sizeable consignment of class B drugs,” the judge told him.
“Those who engage in drugs understand that those who supply them are people who care not for the drug user; they care only for themselves and will stop at nothing to carry out this evil business of supplying drugs.”
