Jail for drug dealer caught with £2m heroin
Police chiefs have welcomed a seven-year jail term handed to a drug dealer found with £2 million of heroin in his car boot on the M6.
Detectives swooped on the Range Rover as it headed north between junctions 10 and 10a, a court was told.
Ten kilo-sized blocks of the drug were discovered in a bulging sports bag in the boot along with £370 cash, several mobile phones and a dealers list.
The car was owned and driven by 31-year-old joiner David Partington who had collected the haul at an unspecified location in the Midlands and was taking it back to Manchester, where he lived.
See also: Caught on camera: Police swoop on the 'sweet shops' of Walsall's Dora Street.
Partington, of previous good character from Whitefield, Manchester, pleaded guilty to possessing heroin with intent to supply and was jailed for seven years four months.
Detective Constable Mark Hackett, from the force's Priorities Team, said: "Partington was so sure of himself he sent a text saying he was on his way home after hiding the drugs inside the boot of his car. He wasn't expecting to be stopped by motorway officers just before midnight on May 15.
See also: Dealer who hid drugs in a Kinder Egg jailed for three years.
"What he didn't realise was that by sending the message he had implicated himself which made it very difficult for him to claim he was innocent.
"We are pleased with the sentencing; West Midlands Police takes drug criminality very seriously and will do everything within its power to stop the supply and dealing of drugs.
"This is a significant find which has prevented millions of pounds worth of drugs finding their way onto the streets."
