A drug smuggler caught with more than £400,000 of cocaine in his suitcase on a flight from Portugal to Liverpool John Lennon Airport has been jailed for six years. William Wallace, 37, of Teal Grove in Birchwood, Warrington, admitted being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of cocaine.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Tuesday September 8 that Wallace was intercepted by HM Revenue and Customs and Border Force officers on April 25 after arriving at John Lennon Airport. His luggage was seized and found to contain bricks of cocaine weighing 23.25kg in total, wrapped in cling film. The drugs were between 80% and 84% purity and valued at around £440,000.
Passport stamps raise suspicions
Zahra Baqri, prosecuting, said Wallace's suitcase otherwise contained several foam swimming pool floats, items used to protect the cocaine by preventing the blocks from moving around. Wallace told officers that a man whose name he did not know and had never met before had offered him £10,000 to bring the suitcase, which he believed contained cannabis, into the UK.
His passport contained stamps from locations including Amsterdam, Calais, Hamburg, Malta, Guernsey, four trips to Brazil and several to Malaga and the Spanish mainland. Ms Baqri said intelligence was requested regarding the multiple date stamps, but no intelligence or evidence linked the defendant's travel to drug trafficking. She added that the trips and their frequency were suspicious, and that Wallace asserts he is unemployed.
Defence cites remorse and positive conduct
Wallace has no previous convictions. Sarah Gruffydd, defending, told the court he attends as a man very full of remorse and shame, with a previously unblemished record who now faces a substantial custodial sentence. She said he had done something incredibly stupid and must face the consequences, and that financial pressures as a single man struggling to find employment led him to make a stupid decision for a significant sum of money.
Gruffydd said Wallace had been acting as a mentor in custody and was seeking another role in the prison, spending his time reading and trying to educate himself. His only goal currently is to get his time done, get out and do something that can make his parents proud. She noted he did not appear to know the combination for the suitcase, which had to be opened with pliers, and that he believed he was bringing cannabis into the country.
Judge criticises 'sketchy' account
Sentencing via video link to HMP Altcourse, District Judge Jack McGarva said: "You were arrested with a suitcase which contained a very heavy amount of cocaine. There is no forensic evidence to show you having contact with what was inside the case, but you knew that you were importing controlled drugs into this country and you knew you were importing a substantial quantity of controlled drugs. It must have been obvious to anybody, given the weight of the case.
"You say that you believed it was cannabis. There is no evidence before me to contradict that statement. Obviously, to say the least, your account as to how you came to be doing this is sketchy. You cannot name the man. You say you were paid about £10,000, which is quite a lot of money for doing this, but there is very little detail."
The judge noted Wallace has made a positive impact during his time in custody, has no previous convictions, and that positively good things were said about him. Wallace was jailed for six years.
