A drug courier found carrying up to £15,000 worth of cannabis has been ordered to pay back just £141 despite making more than £21,000. He tried avoid responsibility for the haul and claimed he was "doing a favour for a friend".
Feriz Arifaj, 51, was caught red-handed by police with cannabis in freezer bags as he left a house in Cwmbran on June 12 last year. The defendant was seen leaving a black Mercedes and entering a house in Chapel Street.
He observed leaving two minutes later carrying two "heavy-laden" Aldi freezer bags and officers could smell cannabis. They approached Arifaj who look startled and placed the bags on the floor.
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A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard the defendant was detained and searched, and inside the Aldi freezer bags were three vacuum-packed bags containing cannabis. Arifaj was arrested and found in possession of £9,000 in cash and keys to the property in Chapel Street which the defendant had entered.
The house was searched and a first-floor attic contained the hallmarks of a recently-kept cannabis factory. The female flowering head cannabis weighed three kilos in total and had a combined wholesale value between £9,600 and £15,000.
Arifaj, of Pontnewydd Walk, Cwmbran, was interviewed but gave no comment. He later pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cannabis and possession of criminal property on the basis he was acting as a courier. He claimed he agreed to transport the drugs as a "favour" and in his home country of Albania friends would do favours for one another but he had now learnt a "salutary lesson".
Recorder Mark Cotter KC sentenced Arifaj to a 12-month community order. He also ordered him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.
A Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday heard Arifaj had benefited to the tune of £21,159 from drug dealing but his available assets came to £141. Recorder Christopher Felstead ordered the defendant to pay that sum within 28 days or serve a one-month imprisonment in default.
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