A member of an organised crime group who facilitated the smuggling of cocaine and cannabis to the island has been jailed for nine years.

Darryl Thomas, 28, handed over the keys and organised payment to a man who took a BMW on the ferry from Liverpool in June last year for delivery to premises on Mona Street, Douglas.

Hidden nside, police found 999.56g of cocaine worth between £99,956 and £142,794 and 3.9 kilos of cannabis with a street value of £78,419.

The Court of General Gaol Delivery heard that Thomas was a member of the same organised crime group as that of James Spotswood who was jailed in August for 15 years for orchestrating the importation of drugs to the island from his prison cell at Walton jail in Merseyside.

But jailing him for nine years, Deemster Graeme Cook said he was below Spotswood in the hierarchy of the crime group.

More than dozen members of the same organised crime group have been convicted following a joint Isle of Man police and North West Regional Crime Unit operation codenamed Achilles.

Thomas, of Price Street, Birkenhead, admitted production of cocaine and cannabis.

The court heard that a car recovery agent had been asked to deliver a BMW to the Isle of Man. The car had been parked on Hoylake Road by the All-American car wash and it was Darryl Thomas who had handed over the keys to the vehicle and also arranged payment.

But the driver became concerned about the vehicle’s steering and contacted the defendant to tell him he didn’t want to continue and he transferred the money back.

He was subsequently contacted again and was told the car was fixed and so agreed to take the BMW on the ferry from Liverpool.

On arrival in Douglas, the vehicle was stopped and 20 bags of controlled drugs were found hidden inside. The driver told police he had known nothing about its contents.

Defence advocate Sara-Jayne Dodge said her client, who had been a groundworker, had handed himself into police in Merseyside and had entered guilty pleas at the earliest opportunity.

She said he had a two-year-old son and had expressed genuine remorse. He was now clean and sober from drugs for the first time in 10 years, she told the court.

Sentencing him, Deemster Cook told him: ‘You are 28 and you have been involved in serious criminal activity. You were involved in organised crime, you were not at the level of Mr Spotswood but still you took an important part.’

The Deemster jailed him for nine years for the cocaine production offence and three years concurrent for the cannabis offence.

Thomas will serve two thirds of his sentence before he is automatically released on parole but will be able to apply for release on licence at the half way point.

The Deemster also made an exclusion order, banning him from the island for five years after his release.