Cannabis Smuggler Jailed For £50K Stash

A cannabis smuggler, caught at Gatwick Airport with £50,000 worth of the drug disguised as sweets, soap and various cleaning products, has been jailed for twelve months.

Horace Blackwood, 55, of Albert Road, South Norwood, pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court (pictured) to importing 18.27 kilos of cannabis on December 17, last year.

He was stopped by UK Border Agency officers as he rode an assistance buggy to catch a connecting flight to Manchester.

Inside his luggage were two plastic bags containing the disguised cannabis.

In Montego Bay, Jamaica Blackwood was caught trying to smuggle a small amount of cannabis onto a UK flight in 2008 and was fined £50.

The court heard the ex-youth worker had a drug habit, but after beating his addiction relapsed and then went on to suffer depression, diabetes and heart problems.

Blackwood felt under pressure to raise cash so his sick mother could return to her native Jamaica and owed money to loan sharks.

“The most sensible thing you have done is plead guilty,” Judge Nicholas Ailey told him.