A 20-year-old who tried to collect an intercepted package containing over £25,000 worth of drugs has been jailed for five years and eight months.

Morgan Askew, of Gorsecroft, Douglas, attempted to produce the class A drug cocaine and class B cannabis to the island through the postal system.

He was sentenced by Deemster Graeme Cook last week after pleading guilty to the offences last month.

Prosecutor Hazel Carroon said that on Friday, March 13, of this year, Post Office staff intercepted a parcel with a false address. A man, believed to be Askew, then rang asking for it to be delivered to his home address.

He later attended the post office in person, showing his ID and attempted to collect the parcel.

The police were called and he was subsequently arrested, at which point officers said he seemed surprised to be told the package contained class A drugs.

He later said he was collecting it for a friend.

Examinations of the parcel found it to contain 56.4g of cocaine, with a street value of £5,640 and 984.9g of cannabis with a value of £19,698.

When officers looked at his phone, text messages between Askew and his mother revealed he told her the package contained ’Xbox accessories’.

However, in texts to other people not before the court, he acknowledged he was the one who could get into trouble.

Defence advocate Louise Cooil said of her client: ’He is 20 years old and he knew the risks to him.’

Naive

Ms Cooil said Askew had shown a ’lack of consequential thinking’ and ’naivety’.

She noted his actions were ’not particularly sophisticated’ as seen by his going to the post office himself.

Deemster Cook said that Askew is a ’comparatively young man’ but that there was a large quantity of drugs.

Acknowledging his surprise at being told the package contained a class A drug, the Deemster said: ’Maybe you thought you were just going to get class B’.

However he added: ’The texts suggest you knew more about this than you told the police.’

Deemster Cook said that while some people assume concurrent sentences would be passed for two different classes of drugs being in a package, this would not be the case.

He also warned against young people being ’used like mules’ by drug dealers and that ’there must be a deterrent’.

Askew was sentenced to five years and two months for producing cocaine to the island and a further six months for producing cannabis, giving him a total prison of five years and eight months.