COCAINE worth an estimated £500,000 was found in a van which police officers stopped on the M6 near Southwaite.

At Carlisle Crown Court, the 28-year-old man who was a passenger in the VW van was sentenced following his guilty plea – entered the day after he was caught – to possessing the Class A drug with intent to supply.

Police became suspicious because both Alexander Ross and the driver of the van appeared to be unusually nervous as officers spoke to them, the court was told.

They gave the police differing accounts for the reason behind their journey, it was heard.

The prosecutor said police stopped the van on the southbound carriageway between Junctions 40 and 41 at 10.30am on August 2.

“Both men were singularly nervous,” said the prosecutor. “As a result of that, police searched the rear of the panel van and found five separate vacuum-wrapped packs of cocaine.”

The purity of the cocaine ranged from 56 per cent to 78 per cent, and each package had an estimated street value of £100,000. The prosecutor said the amount of the Class A drug involved suggested Ross was a “trusted” courier.

The defendant also had a message on his phone from his criminal contact asking him to “not say anything to the other lad” – thought to be a reference to the van's driver.

The police did not take any action against the driver. The prosecutor said that, after his arrest, Ross appeared to be remarkably honest, admitting that he was due to be paid £5,000 for his day’s work.

He entered a guilty plea to the offence as soon as he appeared in the magistrates court.

It also emerged, the court heard, that Ross's crime bosses had entrusted him with a password that he was to ask for from the person who was due to receive the drugs.

The prosecutor added: “He’s 28 and has no relevant previous convictions, apart from for excess alcohol in 2014. It is in the interests of an organised crime group to engage somebody who is not on the police radar.”

Jeff Smith, defending, took up this point, saying that employing a person such as Ross would be an attractive prospect for the people who were dealing drugs on the scale involved.

While £5,000 was a significant reward, Ross had thrown away one of the best parts of his life through his actions.

“He was still young enough to do anything he wants but by virtue of this conviction he has really ruined the rest of his life,” observed Mr Smith. “The only argument is about how long he must go to prison for.”

The court heard that Ross’s partner was a teacher, the mother of two children. But he had “got in with the wrong crowd” and was using drugs.

Recorder Mark Ainsworth told Ross, whose address was given as Sunniside, Middlesbrough: “It’s puzzling how somebody in your circumstances finds yourself involved in such a serious criminal enterprise.

“You have no relevant previous convictions; your partner is a teacher and she has two children. Yet somehow you found yourself mixing with the wrong crowd and so found yourself embroiled in this enterprise.

“It may be that it was through the use of cocaine over the years that you became involved with them. You have used cocaine heavily in recent times.” 

Recorder Ainsworth said the courts take Class A drugs offending so seriously because they wreck lives, relationships and cause havoc in people’s working lives. “They cause misery, and that is why the courts take such a dim view,” added the Recorder.

He jailed Ross for five years and four months.