Dummy parcel helps catch cocaine importer

Monday 06 February 2023

A 23-year-old man who imported cocaine and failed to disclose his mobile phone pin code to Bailiwick Law Enforcement has been imprisoned for five years by Guernsey’s Royal Court.

Ryan Gray, originally from Doncaster, pleaded guilty to importing 27.76 grams of cocaine, which had an estimated street value of between £2,776 and £4,164, and a RIPL offence which were committed last summer.

Gray had previously been sentenced in the Magistrate’s Court for possessing a small quantity of MDMA.

Advocate Sarah Watson, prosecuting, told the court that a parcel was randomly selected and opened by postal workers on the morning of August 19 2022.

A plastic bag was seen to be concealed within a candle, and the package was marked and transferred for further examination. The plastic wrapped item contained a “white lumpy substance”, and tests revealed it to be cocaine.

The importation was intercepted by Customs Officers at the post office and the cocaine was found concealed within the inside of a candle. Customs Officers routinely work at the post office inspecting both inbound and outbound mail.

— Guernsey Police (@GuernseyPolice) February 3, 2023

Law Enforcement Officers decided to replicate the package to stage a delivery to its stated address. Gray was spotted just before midday entering the address with a backpack and other males accompanying him. The group left soon after with Gray on the phone, at which point customs officers approached and arrested him on suspicion of importing controlled drugs.

He told them while he believed there was cocaine in the bag, it was “not mine”. Once at Police headquarters the dummy package was removed and Gray was asked to disclose his mobile phone pin code. 

He was served a RIPL notice on August 23 which was signed, but he did not disclose the code within seven days.

He explained to Police that a third party had offered to pay him £500 to look out for the package but he did not know it contained cocaine. He was unable to explain why the package had been sent from near his native Doncaster and admitted previously using drugs such as cocaine and cannabis.

The high-tech crime unit ultimately accessed the phone without the code in October and discovered evidence of Gray’s intent to supply and correspondence detailing how to conceal and import the drugs to the island. 

Advocate Watson requested the forfeiture and destruction of the cocaine, and the forfeiture of Gray’s mobile phone. 

Pictured: Gray was sentenced in the Royal Court.

Advocate Liam Roffey, defending, said his young client made a “grave and life changing mistake”, but was “candid in seeing what awaits him”.

The second band of the Richards guidelines had been triggered and a significant custodial sentence was likely, he added.

Advocate Roffey noted references from Gray’s employer which showed “another side” of his client and demonstrated his “commendable work ethic”.

Gray had moved to the island in September 2021 to work and remove himself from the UK drug culture.

“That transition was not as easy as hoped”, Advocate Roffey said, and Gray had “succumbed to temptation” while here and made worse by the importation and abuse of the postal system.

He said Gray subsequently confirmed that no other local persons were involved with the import, and accepted the incriminating evidence found on the phone showed intention to sell to third parties. 

His pin code was not disclosed as Gray was “panicking and terrified by his position”.

The probation report detailed how Gray was hurt by the impact on his family, and that he made no attempt to minimise his actions. He has since attended drug and other support services.

Judge Russell Finch, sentencing, criticised Gray for wasting time by giving inaccurate statements in initial Police interviews and requiring law enforcement to apply more effort to examine the contents of the phone.

A combined sentencing starting point of nine years and six months was adopted for the two offences.

Judge Finch applied a 50% discount to the importation count owing to the positive references, commitment to remedy substance habits and guilty pleas, which he said was “erring on the side of leniency”.

But he labelled cocaine a “particularly damaging drug” and the sentence was consistent with other similar cases and should act as a deterrent to copycat offences. 

Gray was sent to Les Nicolles for five years – four years and three months for the importation and nine months for the RIPL offence consecutively.