JAILED: Drug courier made £200k transporting £2m of cocaine
A Black Country drug courier who made £200,000 by transporting £2 million worth of cocaine from Wolverhampton to Devon has been ordered to repay less than £3,000.
Olger Plepi, of Hobgate Road in Heath Town, played a key part in the gang which made 16 deliveries of high grade cocaine to Exeter.
The 32-year-old was jailed for six years and eight months.
Sheet metal worker Plepi was known to have made at least £200,000 out of his role in the conspiracy but his only assets were £150 cash which was seized when he was arrested, as well as the car which he used to transport the drugs.
The car has now been sold and the surplus after paying of a hire purchase agreement was £2,796.88.
Judge David Evans ordered Plepi to repay a total of £2,946.88 within three months or serve a further 28 days in prison.
He was one of three men who were jailed for a total of almost 20 years.
The drugs involved were brought from Wolverhampton by him and handed over to two Devon based dealers inside a duvet, which was transferred from one car to another. They were bulked out with the mixing agent creatine when police raided a flat in Exeter in November 2016.
Officers also found ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis which had been brought down on the previous 15 drug runs.
The street value of each delivery is estimated at almost £150,000, meaning the total value of the operation could have been close to £2.4 million.
Plepi was tracked as he made the final handover after parking boot to boot in Exeter with fellow gang member Thomas Karaaslan and transferring the cocaine wrapped in a duvet.
At the earlier hearing defence counsel Mr Martin Husayin said Plepi got into debt after suffering from cancer and was being paid just £100 to bring the drugs to Devon.
He did not enjoy a lavish lifestyle and was still working as a metal worker in Walsall at the same time as he was doing the drugs runs.
He said: "We are not dealing with a professional overseas criminal. He got into serious crime for the first time in his life."
The leader of the Exeter end of the gang, Cagdas Demir, was jailed for seven years, eight months, while another gang member Thomas Karaaslan, of Tiverton, was jailed for six years.
