A drugs courier has been jailed after he was caught with nearly £400,000 worth of cannabis stuffed inside a music speaker system.
Alqab Khan was sentenced nearly a year after a jury found him guilty – having left the country while awaiting sentence. A court heard that police acting on a tip-off stopped his Mercedes Sprinter van as he travelled to Scotland from Birmingham.
Self-employed taxi driver Khan claimed to be delivering a speaker system and musical instruments to a customer in Glasgow. Police told Airdrie Sheriff Court he looked “worried and startled” and his hands were “trembling”.
More than 83lb of cannabis, worth £382,700, was found in vacuum packages inside the speakers.
Dad-of-three Khan, 48, of Birmingham, was found guilty of being concerned in the supply of cannabis on the M74 near Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, in January 2022.
He claimed he was “an unwitting courier” but a police drugs expert told the jury: “Given the finances involved, I don’t think an organised crime group would entrust this role to someone who doesn’t know what he is carrying.”
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