Stuart Brian Lines (36) was discovered to be importing drugs when a package containing 6.82 grams of cocaine was intercepted at Jersey Post headquarters.
Other drugs were found at his property and analysis of his phone linked him to a previous importation of 12.37 grams of MDMA more than a year earlier.
Crown Advocate Conrad Yates, prosecuting, said at 7am on 20 December last year a Customs officer selected a brown padded package for further examination at Jersey Post headquarters.
It had a special-delivery tracker and contained a Christmas card and a re-used Amazon cardboard packet. The package was discovered to contain cocaine.
Lines was arrested at his home and cannabis, MDMA and cocaine were found, with the defendant stating that the drugs were his for New Year’s Eve.
Scales were also found at the property, and they tested positive for traces of cocaine and cannabis.
Lines, who worked for JT, told officers he was a recreational drug user who generally bought only small amounts of drugs. He said he had the scales to make sure he was getting what he paid for.
A box in the kitchen was found to contain cannabis and Lines initially denied it was his.
He then said he had bought 100 grams a few weeks earlier for £1,000 and it would last him months.
On examining his phone, the police found he had been tracking the item that had been seized by Customs officers, along with an incriminating Whatsapp message. He gave no comment to police in an interview.
Lines admitted that the MDMA that was imported was to supply his friends. Further examination of phones revealed messages indicating Lines was involved in an earlier postal importation of MDMA in October 2017.
After an investigation in 2017, there was no evidence linking the occupants of a flat with MDMA and the matter was dropped.
However the phone analysis confirmed that in October 2017, Lines provided the address to someone in the UK for the purposes of delivering drugs to the Island.
In total the street value for the imported drugs was given as between £1,000 and £1,250 for the MDMA and £840 to £1,050 for the cocaine.
Advocate Jeremy Heywood, defending, said that his client was a small recreational drug user and was of good character.
The advocate said that Lines turned to drugs after the death of his grandfather and moved to Jersey two years ago following the breakdown of a relationship.
He added that even though his client knew custody was the likely outcome, the court should consider the benefit community service would have.
However, delivering the sentence of the Superior Number of the Royal Court, the Bailiff, Sir William Bailhache, said: ‘Custody is appropriate and we don’t consider community service to be appropriate.
‘That would be to go in the teeth of the established policy of this court.’
The Jurats in the case were Geoffrey Grime, Kim Averty, Anthony Olson, Jane Ronge and Elizabeth Dulake.
