A granddad was caught with more than £11m of cocaine and heroin hidden inside bags for life when his van was pulled over by police.
Peter Melia was stopped on the motorway while couriering the huge stash of class A drugs, which was concealed in a hidden compartment inside his vehicle.
Liverpool Crown Court heard today, Thursday, that officers stopped a white Ford Transit van being driven by the 46-year-old - of Ballantyne Road in Clubmoor - at around midday on September 3 last year near to junction 16 of the M6 at Keele in Staffordshire. Mark Phillips, prosecuting, described how a search of the vehicle revealed a hide which contained six bags for life with 64 blocks of drugs wrapped in brown tape inside.
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These amounted to 107.92kg of cocaine with a purity of between 88 and 91%, drugs with a street value of up to £10.7m, and 19.5kg of heroin of 52% purity - worth as much as £1.1m. Melia previously claimed he believed he had been transporting cannabis, but has now resiled from this basis of plea.
The former lorry and taxi driver has a total of 10 previous convictions for 34 offences. Peter White, defending, told the court that his client, who is a dad-of-four and grandad-of-two, had been a cannabis user who racked up debts after losing his job as a warehouseman.
He added: "Mr Melia is at pains to point out that he is utterly ashamed and devastated by his behaviour. He is disgusted by his own actions. Quite simply, he would say he was in a very difficult position and at quite a low ebb. It was incredibly stupid of him to become involved.
"There was a considerable gap in his offending. He was in full-time employment and had stability in his home life. He was doing well. Unfortunately, that didn't last and Mr Melia found himself where he is today.
"There isn't anything to suggest that Mr Melia is the brains of any operation. I ask your honour to pass a sentence which gives Mr Melia some hope and allows him to contribute something to society, which clearly he is able to do."
Melia admitted possession of cocaine and heroin during an earlier hearing. Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool this afternoon, he was jailed for 10 years and eight months.
Sentencing, Recorder Ian Harris said: "You were doing this for money because you accrued debts. A lot of people accrue debts but do not resort to serious drug dealing.
"You clearly played an absolutely vital and trusted role in the movement of a huge volume of drugs in high purity amounts. You are contributing to the degradation and misery that drugs cause to those who take them, their families and the wider community which is affected by crimes committed by those addicted to them."
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