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.
