Ryan Anderson was caught after Customs officers watched him collect a ‘dummy’ package they had posted to an address after earlier intercepting a parcel containing the class A drug ecstasy.
An officer said that when they stopped the 21-year-old and found the parcel hidden in the waistband of his underwear, the suspect ‘dropped his head and the colour drained from his face’.
Anderson, who has 21 previous convictions, later pleaded guilty to being concerned in the importation of class A drugs and was this week jailed for three years by the Superior Number of the Royal Court.
Outlining the case, Crown Advocate Richard Pedley said that on 15 January a Customs officer examined a plain white envelope at Jersey Post’s headquarters which contained 100 ecstasy tablets with a total street value of up to £2,000. Anderson was seen the same day entering the communal hallway of the flat to which the envelope was addressed and leaving shortly afterwards.
Customs officers created a substitute package for delivery the following day to the property at Bagot Manor Court in Fountain Lane, St Saviour, and the area was kept under surveillance.
The court heard that Anderson was arrested shortly after officers watched him enter and then leave the building.
When he was interviewed, Anderson claimed to have overhead a conversation between two people and was under the impression that ‘something valuable’, which he thought might be ‘tickets or vouchers’, was going to be sent to the home address of one of them in Bagot Manor Court.
He went on to give several accounts of his actions before later pleading guilty to being involved in the importation. The court heard that he was just over half-way through a probation order imposed for an assault when he committed the offence. No separate penalty was imposed for the breach.
Delivering the court’s sentence, Deputy Bailiff Tim Le Cocq told Anderson that although he admitted the offence, he did not plead guilty at the earliest stage possible and he did not have a history of responding positively to non-custodial sentences.
Advocate Caitriona Fogarty, defending, said that although the defendant had a poor record, it was not the worst that the court had seen and that there was a possibility that Anderson could ‘change direction’ as he had made ‘considerable progress’ with previous community orders.
The Deputy Bailiff was sitting with Jurats Robert Kerley, Anthony Olsen, Michael Liston, Sally Sparrow, John Le Breton and Stan Le Cornu.
