Ford Transit cannabis courier jailed for driving drugs from London to Leeds for just £200 payment

Ergys Kuka said he was promised just a meagre £200 payment for making the drop-off, for which he was given more than two years’ jail at Leeds Crown Court.

The 24-year-old admitted a charge of being concerned in the supply of cannabis.

The court was told that patrolling police had pulled over the Ford Transit van in the Leeds area on March 1. Driver Kuka said he was travelling from London but raised suspicions when he said he was heading to Leeds but did not know the exact location.

A strong smell of cannabis from the vehicle led the officers into a search, and they immediately found boxes of small cannabis plants in the footwell.

In total, there were 117 plants ranging between 10cm and 20cm in height. There were also two mobile phones and £425 in cash.

Experts said the potential yield of the plants could be up to 6,435 grammes, with an estimated street value of £64, 350.

Kuka was interviewed and gave a prepared statement, denied knowing the drugs were there and claimed he was asked to drive the van to pay off a debt.

Kuka, an Albanian of no fixed address, appeared in court via video link from HMP Doncaster.

Mitigating, Imran Majid said Kuka had no previous convictions and had come to the UK two years “for want of a better life”.

He said his parents were elderly and he had been unable to continue his education in Albania because of his family’s limited financial means.

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Mr Majid said: “He has had time to reflect on what he has done. He is ashamed of his behaviour, accepts what he has done and has brought shame upon his family as well.

“He accepts it means he will face the full force of the law.”

Mr Majid said that Kuka knows he will be deported once he has completed his sentence.

The judge, Recorder Ella Anderson said it was “inconceivable” that Kuka did not know the plants were in the van and added: “You must have had some awareness of the scale of the operation.”

She jailed him for 28 months.