Chinese drug-runner had spent 10 years in UK as asylum seeker

Jiajie He yesterday begged a sheriff to give him a shorter sentence because he was not used to European-style prison food and would have no-one to talk to in jail.

He, who has spent a decade in the UK with no visible means of support, said he would be “isolated” in jail because no-one would be able to speak to him in Mandarin Chinese.

The 30-year-old was caught with almost 60kg of cannabis stuffed into two large suitcases that were so heavy he could barely lift them, Perth Sheriff Court heard.

He was working as a courier for a gang operating a major drugs ring across the UK, from Wick in the Highlands to Cardiff in south Wales.

The gang paid an innocent taxi driver £1,000 to undertake the marathon journey from Cardiff to the cannabis cultivation factory they had set up in Wick.

He, the accused, was sent on the 24-hour round trip to collect 59kg of cannabis which was to be moved to another location and dried before being packaged and sold on. The court was told it had a potential street value in the region of £150,000.

However, the operation was being monitored as part of a nationwide police operation and the taxi was stopped and searched on the outskirts of Perth as it returned south.

He, who arrived in Britain illegally in 2001, was found guilty of being concerned in the supply of cannabis in various parts of the country on 19 and 20 February this year.

Counsel Ronnie Renucci, defending, said: “He is, in effect, an asylum seeker who has been here since 2001. Because of his status he is not in a position to gain employment, nor is he entitled to state benefits. He has found his period on remand difficult. Due to his status and his lack of English, he is very much more isolated than other members of the prison population.

“Any period of imprisonment is going to be particularly difficult for him. There are no other Mandarin speakers and communication is very difficult, even down to the basics of getting appropriate food.

“Prison is never meant to be a particularly pleasant or easy experience, but it is perhaps more difficult for Mr He than for the normal prison population.”

A jury at the court heard how He was recruited by a Chinese gang to go to Wick and get the drugs and paid cabbie Khizar Hayat £1,000 for the 1,300 mile round trip. When they were stopped, He told the drugs squad officers the two suitcases belonged to the taxi driver.

However, He was carrying a mobile phone which contained texts relating to the drugs trade. He claimed he had only had the phone for a day, but it contained pictures of him standing by a polar bear at a Nativity scene.

PC Jonathan Godfrey told the trial that the back seats of the taxi had been lowered to accommodate the suitcases. When opened, they were found to be vacuum-packed with cannabis that had a total weight of 59kg.

He, of Perth Prison, was found guilty of supplying cannabis on 19 and 20 February in Cardiff and at the Norseman Hotel and Owen Place in Wick, and at Triangle Service Station in Perth. Hayat, 41, of Cardiff, was found not guilty of the same charge.

He was jailed for 30 months and Sheriff Michael Fletcher also ordered that he be deported back to China at the conclusion of his sentence.