May Taylor and Daryush Yavari have been jailed for six years each after attempting to smuggle more than £750,000 of cocaine into the UK on a flight from the Algarve to Liverpool John Lennon Airport. The pair concealed 34kg of class A drugs in their suitcases, masking the stash with ground coffee.
Border Force interception
Liverpool Crown Court heard that both Taylor and Yavari were stopped by Border Force officers at immigration control upon their arrival at Liverpool John Lennon Airport shortly before 1am on August 5 this year. They were then escorted to the luggage carousel to collect their baggage.
Jonathan Keane, prosecuting, described how their suitcases were X-rayed and found to contain a number of solid rectangular blocks. The defendants confirmed they had travelled from Faro Airport after a week abroad and claimed to have been transporting the bags on behalf of a friend, maintaining they were unaware of the contents.
Drug discovery and claims
A search of Taylor's suitcase revealed 15 cellophane-wrapped blocks of cocaine covered in ground coffee. Yavari's luggage contained a further 15 packages, with each stash weighing 17kg and having an estimated combined wholesale value of £779,000.
Taylor, 22, of Rowan Place in Lancaster, told police "I didn't know they were in there" following her arrest. Yavari, 20, of Blackstock Road in Sheffield, claimed under interview that they had visited Portugal together with a woman named Maria, having never met his co-accused before but "known of her". He maintained they had flown to the Algarve for the purpose of "bringing back vapes, with Maria having done it before and received £5,000".
Sentencing
Yavari reported that Maria "disappeared during the trip" before she returned and said she had met a Somalian man who allegedly provided her with the suitcases. Taylor said she had been on a three-day holiday when Maria offered her money to bring suitcases back to the UK to "pass on to another male". Both defendants have no previous convictions.
Taylor and Yavari admitted being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of cocaine. Sentencing, Recorder Richard Pratt KC said: "Your story, I am sorry to say, is not unfamiliar. Two young people of hitherto unblemished character are prevailed upon by those more criminally sophisticated to take the risk of transporting cocaine from one country to another."
He added: "The cocaine was destined for Liverpool and would no doubt have found its way onto the street, causing the misery that it does. It is always necessary, therefore, for the courts to take a serious view of anyone who involves themselves in the importation of that drug."
