Two Merseyside men caught in separate sting operations this summer proved drugs bosses are still coveting the island of Jersey as a lucrative market.
Lawrence Mitchell went to fairly extreme lengths to get Class A drugs onto the popular tourist destination on July 21, when he concealed 16 packages of cocaine wrapped in condoms inside himself. The 37-year-old was taken into custody after stepping off a flight from Liverpool.
He eventually told customs officers "I want to be brutally honest with you lads" and admitted he was a courier. The Jersey authorities eventually calculated he had cocaine worth around £27,000 at street level inside his body.
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Three weeks earlier Elijah Silbourne, 20, had used a less invasive smuggling technique to try and sneak a kilogram of cocaine onto Jersey concealed in the spare wheel well of his car. He was stopped after arriving on the ferry from Poole, in what customs officers described as one of the biggest single seizures of cocaine on the island.
Both men received significant prison sentences, with long-term crook Mitchell receiving seven years and Silbourne six years. But despite regular reports of heavy sentences and a zero-tolerance approach from Jersey law enforcement, Merseyside drugs gangs still have the island in their sights.
With any prospective smuggler forced to run the gauntlet of airport or ferry terminal security, or to try and evade coastguard and police patrols on the coastline, it is not an easy place to maintain a consistent supply. The difficulties involved inflate the price of drugs such as cocaine or cannabis, which can fetch double or even triple the rates paid on the mainland.
Liverpool's most infamous drug baron, Curtis Warren, was so tempted by the island's potential for high profit margins that he risked his freedom within weeks of being released from a lengthy prison sentence in 2009.
Warren was caught attempting to arrange a £1m shipment of cannabis to Jersey, landing himself another 13 behind bars - a prison term he is only due to finish next month.
Even the hefty punishment meted out to Warren did not deter others from attempting audacious trafficking plots. In 2019, Alexander Cullen was locked up for 14 years after customs officers found a massive haul of heroin in the fuel tank of his VW van, as he arrived in Jersey on board the Condor Liberation from Poole.
The heroin consignment, weighing in at around 10kg, was described by Jersey customs officers as the largest ever drug seizures in the island's history. Experts estimated that if cut and sold at the island's inflated prices, it could have fetched Cullen's organised crime group upwards of £10m.
A stead stream of other low-level or mid-range couriers have passed through Jersey's Royal Courts in recent years, landing themselves heavy sentences while kingpins back in Merseyside keep their hands clean.
Speaking after the sentencing of Mitchell and Silbourne, Luke Goddard, Senior Manager at Jersey Customs and Immigration Service, said: “These attempted importations demonstrate how the Island is being targeted by criminal organisations. The diligent work of JCIS Officers has disrupted their activities. The sentences of the courts reflects the seriousness of these offences and sends out an appropriate message to those involved.”
Anyone with information on drug smuggling can report it anonymously via 0800 735 5555.
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