Drug traffickers hid cannabis among dog biscuits and labelled it "tinned foods and meat" in an effort to post it from Spain to Tyneside.
The attempt to fool Border force officials into letting more than a kilo of the drugs into the UK was thwarted as soon as the parcel was examined. The cannabis, weighing a total of 1.69 kilos and worth up to £10,500 if sold on the streets, was destined for Jordan Campbell, in Hebburn.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the officers who had intercepted the package at Gatwick Airport, in August 2020, alerted police, who made a replica parcel for onward delivery. An undercover police officer then took the decoy package to Campbell, whose name and address was on the original parcel. The court heard he was later seen leaving the house with the package and arrested.
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He told the officers "don't know what this is" but later admitted he had been asked to hold the parcel, which he knew would contain cannabis but not how much, for someone else, who he refused to name. Campbell also confessed he had cocaine in the house, which he would use to supply to friends so he could support his own habit.
Police seized a total of 9.86g of cocaine, worth up to £1,000, which Campbell had told them was in a bedroom wardrobe. Messages found on his mobile phone showed he had been dealing for less than a fortnight.
Campbell, 25, of Cressida Gardens, Hebburn, admitted possessing a class A drug with intent to supply and being concerned in the supply of a class B drug. Recorder Andrew Latimer sentenced him to 22 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, with 250 hours unpaid work.
The judge said he accepted Campbell showed a "degree of naivety" in agreeing to accept the cannabis parcel but added: "The reality is, you are a grown man and you knew you were involved in drugs."
Gavin Doig, defending, said Campbell, who has a job and is a dad, has been in no trouble before or since the offences two years ago. Mr Doig added: "At this time, in 2020, he was taking cocaine and he found himself in debt and made the foolish decision, for a short period of time, to involve himself in the supply of cocaine."
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