Courier caught near Warwick transporting more than £100,000 worth of cannabis into Warwickshire

A trusted courier who was caught transporting more than £100,000 worth of cannabis into Warwickshire has been jailed.

Bekim Manuka pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing the cannabis with intent to supply it after being stopped on the M40 near Warwick.

The 22-year-old Albanian, of no fixed address, who was transporting the drug to pay off the people who had smuggled him into the country, was jailed for 18 months.

Prosecutor Jamie Scott said that during the afternoon of September 17 the police became suspicious of a Fiat van being driven by Manuka on the M40.

When they stopped him, Manuka was unable to provide any identification and lied, claiming the van belonged to his cousin who had asked him to deliver something in it.

In the rear of the van officers discovered 13 large bags of skunk cannabis, most of them vacuum-sealed.

Mr Scott said the cannabis weighed just over 12.5 kilos, with a wholesale value of just under £50,000 – ‘but a street value of more than twice that.’

There was also a bag of 4.3 kilos of what is known as ‘shake’ – the trimmings from the plants which were often disposed of, but which could also be put to various uses including to bulk out the main crop.

When he was interviewed Manuka told officers he had been transported to the UK from France, and was repaying the debt he owed for that by acting as a courier for the cannabis operation.

Nick Devine, defending, said: “Mr Manuka came to this country about two-and-a-half years ago.

“He entered into an agreement to be brought here, and he knew he was going to have to work to pay off a debt of in the region of £20,000.

“He didn’t know exactly what the work was going to be. He didn’t travel to this country knowing that on his arrival he was going to be couriering cannabis, but having arrived, he was given that work to do.

“He says that coming to this country has not been the happy experience he anticipated it to be, and all he now wants to do is to return to Albania.”

Jailing Manuka, Judge Anthony Potter told him: “You came to this country when you were 19. As part of an arrangement you had entered into you understood you were going to do some work to pay off the debt to those who had organised that.

“I view your association with the drugs gang for whom you worked as a voluntary one.

“The fact that you didn’t appreciate at the outset that you were going to be pressured into participating in an illegal activity is little mitigation.

“It is plain you were carrying out a valuable and trusted task. You were trusted to convey over 16 kilos of cannabis along the motorway network, cannabis which at a conservative estimate was worth over £50,000 which you knew was going to be broken down for sale.

“You were plainly aware you were being used as a courier because you had helped prepare the bags of cannabis, and you knew they were for onward sale.”