Drugs courier caught with £200,000 of cocaine and £56,000 cash in Bilston car park
A teenager caught with £200,000 worth of high purity cocaine and almost £56,500 cash has been locked up for four years and four months.
Endrit Vishaj had picked up the drugs in London before collecting the cash at a pre-arranged meeting, a judge heard.
The 18-year-old courier was waiting for further instructions in a car park in Bilston when he realised he had been followed by police officers who had him under observation at around 6.30pm on November 27 last year, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
He jumped out of the BMW he was driving before it stopped and ran off but was quickly caught after a short foot chase, explained Mr Patrick Sullivan, prosecuting.
When police checked the car they found two one-kilogram blocks of high quality cocaine in a carrier bag on the front passenger seat and another bag with almost £55,500 cash in it.
Vishaj had a further £1,000 - his fee for the job - bringing the total seized to £56,472.
The defendant told officers that he was given the BMW and a phone by the same man who handed him the drugs.
Mr Sullivan concluded: "At the most conservative wholesale price the drugs were worth £56,000 but if the cocaine was cut into street deals its value increased to £200,000."
'Short of money'
Albanian Vishaj entered the UK illegally at the age of 16 while hidden on a lorry which took him to Solihull, revealed Mr Gerry Bermingham, defending.
He added: "He was an asylum seeker at the age of 16, received a grant worth £57-a-week and went to college to learn English.
"He was short of money, asked a man for a loan and was told he could have some if he did a job. Naively and stupidly he agreed.
"He was used rather than the user and was waiting for further instructions after collecting the drugs in London and the money from a man who came to the vehicle with a bag in Bilston.
"He was waiting to hear where to go next when he saw the unmarked police car keeping watch on him."
Vishaj, from Copthorne Road, Cape Hill, Smethwick pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply and was given four years and four months detention in a Young Offenders Institution.
Judge Dean Kershaw told him: "You agreed to transport high purity cocaine for cash and received £1,000.
"It was quite telling that you left £56,000 cash in the car and two kilos of cocaine worth £200,000 in street deals which is how it would have ended up. Criminals entrenched in the drugs world seldom do that. You were performing a limited function under the direction of another."
