Wolverhampton drugs courier is jailed as operation smashes cartel
A mechanic who acted as courier during a major conspiracy to supply Class A drugs has been jailed for two years.
Scott Highfield's hire car was caught on a pub's CCTV when police say he was involved in an exchange of crack cocaine in February last year.
The 40-year-old was the last of 28 people sentenced following a police investigation codenamed Operation Active that uncovered a drugs cartel run from a car firm.
At Birmingham Crown Court Judge Michael Chambers QC told Highfield, from Wolverhampton, he was satisfied the defendant was aware of the wider conspiracy in Telford and Shrewsbury.
He said that phone and text contact went 'well beyond a user trying to buy drugs'.
Judge Chambers said that £200 in cash recovered by police had been the 'going rate' for couriers involved in the conspiracy.
Highfield, of Alton Close, Bushbury, a cocaine and heroin addict, admitted conspiracy to supply crack cocaine. Judge Chambers heard evidence to determine Highfield's role following a drugs exchange on February 8 last year at the New Pear Tree Inn on Cannock Road, near J1 of the M54 motorway.
Mr Michael Duck, prosecuting, said covert police inquiries – including video and audio equipment at the Phoenix Car Centre car centre in Shrewsbury – showed 118 phone and text contacts between Highfield and another co-conspirator, Gordon Smith.
A meeting was arranged at the pub car park when Highfield's hired Vauxhall Insignia hire and a Renault Clio, used by conspirator Ross Myatt, were seen on CCTV.
Mr Duck said later that day Highfeld's car was stopped in Telford and the defendant had tried to swallow an estimated 14 grams of crack cocaine as he tried to escape.
