A licensed taxi driver from Wakefield has been jailed for six years and eight months after he used his cab to collect two kilograms of cocaine in Somerset.
Hasan Saghir, 26, of Silcoates Street, admitted two counts of dealing in Class A drugs at Leeds Crown Court. He had no previous convictions.
The trip
On 6 February he drove about 220 miles to the Shepton Mallet area. The court was told he used the taxi as a disguise. A supposed customer got into his Toyota Prius with a black bag, rode a short distance, and left the bag in the cab.
The car had CCTV. Saghir rang someone and, looking in the bag, said "sorted". Officers arrested him soon afterwards at a nearby petrol station.
The bag held two kilograms of cocaine, 90 per cent pure. Its value was put at £38,000 to £120,000. A search of his home then found heroin worth £48,000. In interview he confirmed he lived there, and then refused to answer questions.
The sentence
His barrister, Mohammed Rafiq, said Saghir had become addicted to cocaine and owed thousands, and that the pressure of that debt drew him into supply. Saghir's account was that he was only a courier.
Judge Ray Singh called that fanciful. He told Saghir: "It was nonsense. You understood completely the scale of this operation." He said it was a conscious decision to supply Class A drugs, and that the fake taxi ride, used so the handover would not be noticed, aggravated the offences.
The court was not told which council licensed him, or what has happened to that licence.