A drug dealer has been jailed after he was caught trying to smuggle 11kg of cocaine by hiding it inside a table.
Scott Brown was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years and six months for conspiring to import the class A drug into the UK.
The 31-year-old was arrested in August 2023 after a parcel from Costa Rica, destined for his home address, was intercepted by Border Force officials at London’s Heathrow Airport.
The package had been declared as a “rustic table” on customs forms – but an X-ray examination found it contained cocaine worth almost £1m, according to police estimates.
Brown, of Bancroft Avenue in Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire, was sentenced at Preston Crown Court.
Detective Sergeant Jamie Illingworth, from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit taskforce team, said: “This eight-month investigation is an excellent example of multiagency working.
“Today’s sentence would not have been possible without the combined efforts of Border Force, Lancashire Constabulary, and the Crown Prosecution Service.”
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DS Illingworth added: “It was a sophisticated criminal operation and the amount of drugs Brown was attempting to bring into the UK was significant.
“The evidence extracted from his mobile phone involved hours of painstaking detective work, and was crucial in bringing him to justice.
“Class A drugs ruin lives and inflict unimaginable damage in our communities. But we’ve taken almost a million pound worth of drugs off the streets which is an excellent result.”
