Smuggler Canned For £100K Fruit 'N Veg Cannabis Seizure

A cannabis smuggler, who stepped off a Jamaica flight with £100,000 worth of the drug hidden inside forty-four cans of assorted fruit and veg, has been jailed for twenty months.

Patrick Wilton Walters, 47, of Manstone Road, Cricklewood pleaded guilty to importing twenty-two kilos of cannabis at Gatwick Airport on December 10, last year.

Croydon Crown Court heard Walters was stopped by UK Border Agency officers, who searched his suitcase and found the drugs after piercing one of the cans.

“He should not have got involved in this manner and was simply a courier,” said Mr. Keith Goodhand, defending. 

“He was visiting his mother and girlfriend in Jamaica and his girlfriend said she wanted to travel to the UK with him.

“He needed to raise some cash and became involved, through others, in the importation and was horrified when he discovered the amount and value involved.”

Walters was caught once before smuggling a much smaller amount of drugs and has previous convictions for drug, dishonesty and violent offences.

Judge Stephen Waller told the defendant: “This was a very high consignment, a significant commercial amount.

“I will deal with you as someone who was a courier, prepared to take the risk for some commercial gain and you must have realised the amount involved because of the sheer weight.”