A LONDON-based drug smuggler who was caught trying to enter Jersey with high purity cocaine concealed internally has been jailed for six years and four months.
Andrew Kyriakou (55) said he was under pressure to import the drugs to repay a gambling debt and claimed that after he had missed the plane that was initially supposed to bring him to Jersey to make the delivery, masked men had broken into and ransacked his family’s home.
He travelled with Condor on 12 July last year with no luggage and with a return ticket for the same day.
Advocate Allana Binnie, defending, said that Kyriakou got “cold feet” about the delivery but eventually felt such pressure that he travelled to Jersey the next day.
When questioned by Customs and Immigration officers, he said he was visiting two Jersey-based friends called Dave and Dean, and was going to decide whether he wanted to stay longer.
Officers found no drugs on him but a scan of his mobile phone and jacket came back positive and he admitted to having taken cocaine and cannabis in the days before travelling.
After his arrest, X-rays revealed a cling-film-wrapped package containing 57 grams of cocaine in his lower bowel.
Crown Advocate Carla Carvalho, prosecuting, said Kyriakou made several unsolicited statements to Customs officers, including “I’m going to go guilty, they might go easier on me” and “I am not bringing this over for drug dealers, just a wealthy man who offered me good money to come over”.
The drugs were of particularly high quality, according to Advocate Carvalho, at 82% purity. Their estimated street value was between £7,000 and £12,800, but they could have been cut to produce a higher quantity of lower-quality cocaine. In interviews, Kyriakou said that he had been paid £300 upfront and a further £2,000 was to be paid when he delivered the drugs to the Island.
Advocate Binnie said Kyriakou did not stand to make any financial gain from the enterprise. Instead, she said, it would serve to repay a gambling debt.
“He felt he had no other option. He saw this as an opportunity to rid [his creditors] from his life,” she said, adding: “He was just a courier. He had no idea of the purity of the drugs he was dealing with.”
Announcing a custodial sentence of six years and four months, Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae said: “As a consequence of your offending, your wife and children have been threatened and their home has been ransacked. Regrettably, such an occurrence is an all-too-common consequence [of drugs crime] and does not, in our judgment, amount to mitigation.”
Jurats Kim Averty, Gareth Hughes, Karen Le Cornu and David Le Heuzé were sitting.
