Anna Arejy Agathangelou, Jason Paul Bayliss and Paul Emmanuel Bisson appeared in the Royal Court yesterday to be sentenced for their drug-trafficking- related offences. Daniel Karl Morgan was also sentenced during the hearing for money laundering.
Customs officers swooped to arrest three of the defendants after a drug drop was made at Burger King in York Street.
Agathangelou, described in court as the mule, admitted during interview that it was the third such operation she had embarked on.
Crown Advocate Emma Hollywood, prosecuting, said on 22 January last year at around 1pm, Agathangelou got off a flight from Gatwick, boarded a bus to town and went to Burger King in York Street.
Bisson also went to the fast-food outlet, picking up a bag from Agathangelou. After spotting a Customs officer who had been watching him, Bisson put the bag in an outside bin but was arrested and the package – containing 255.4g of heroin – was retrieved. Agathangelou and Bayliss were also detained.
During a separate earlier incident on 19 December 2019, Bayliss dropped off Morgan and Bisson at the Airport and the latter two wheeled a suitcase to the easyJet desk to check it in for a Gatwick flight they were booked onto. Customs officers intercepted the bag – which was booked under Morgan’s name – and found more than £20,000 in cash. Morgan was arrested. Morgan was also sentenced for trying to send £1,000 in cash to an address in Liverpool, as well as individual drug-related offences.
Advocate Darry Robinson, defending Agathangelou, said his client had suffered difficulties during her childhood which had caused her problems in later life. He added that she had now begun taking steps to turn her life around, including obtaining her maths and English GCSEs, and a lengthy prison sentence would deprive her
of seeing her 14-year-old son.
Advocate Rebecca Morley-Kirk, defending Bayliss, said her client had merely acted as a driver in return for ‘a few bags of heroin’. She added that since being in prison he had almost finished
weaning himself off methadone. Advocate Chris Hillier, defending Bisson, said his client was willing to fully engage with services available in prison to ensure he did not find himself in court again, was apologetic and had accepted he was facing a lengthy jail term.
Meanwhile, Advocate James Bell, defending Morgan, referred to recommendations included within a social-inquiry report and urged the court to impose a community-based sentence.
He added that his client had experienced a difficult childhood and that since January 2020 he had been free from drugs and should be rewarded for this.
Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae, presiding, said: ‘It gives the court no pleasure at all to impose lengthy sentences today but class A drugs, particularly heroin, ruin lives, and to export the proceeds of this offending is very serious.
‘The court has a responsibility to protect the people of Jersey from these dangerous and damaging drugs.’
Agathangelou was jailed for six years, Bayliss for seven, Bisson for nine and Morgan for 4½.
Mark Cockerham, head of the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service, said: ‘The sentences handed down by the Royal Court today bring closure to a lengthy investigation into a syndicate who were facilitating the importation of Class A controlled drugs into Jersey.
‘The length of the sentences reflects the seriousness of the nature of this crime, the detection and prevention of which will always be a priority for the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service.’
‘Today is the culmination of excellent joint working with our States of Jersey Police colleagues and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in bringing this investigation to a successful conclusion.’
