'It's supposed to be weed': Man found with £2m of amphetamines jailed
Drugs with a street value of £2 million was seized by police on the M6 in Staffordshire, a judge heard.
The haul of amphetamines weighing just under 200 kilos was found in the van of market trader Simon Brown.
Officers had stopped the van at Stafford services on the southbound carriageway in April this year, Stafford Crown Court was told yesterday.
Brown, aged 50, from Epping in Essex, was jailed for six years after admitting three charges of possessing drugs with intent to supply.
Mr Robert Price, prosecuting, said Brown was the sole occupant of the van checked by police on April 23 this year. Inside were nine cardboard boxes.
The defendant told the officers he had been paid £500 to pick up the boxes. "It's supposed to be 'weed'," he said. In fact, the boxes contained a total of 102 individual packets of amphetamine, weighing 197 kilos.
The wholesale value would be up to £457,000, but 'divided in to one gram deals, on the streets it could potential fetch £2 million,' said Mr Price.
After the seizure of the amphetamine, officers searched Brown's home in Essex. There they found 190 packages of cannabis weighing 18.5 kilos and a street value of up to £92,500. There was another bag of
amphetamine, street value £8,700 in the rafters of the garage.
Mr Price said the prosecution's case was that Brown was a courier for the amphetamines in the van, but he was 'warehousing' the drugs found at his home.
The court heard that Brown had previously served a 13 year sentence for drug trafficking.
Miss Vedrana Pehar, defending, said Brown took full responsibility and was not minimising his role. He had no influence over those higher up in the drugs chain.
The defendant, a father-of two, took over his father's market stall selling ladies clothing when he died three years ago but was struggling to pay the rent.
"He cannot believe he has allowed himself to get back in to this world having promised his family," Miss Pehar said.
