CAMBS: Teenage drug runner jailed for smuggling cocaine during summer holiday
A 15-YEAR-OLD boy sent to Ely to act as a drug runner for a gang during his summer holidays has been jailed.
The youngster, who was only 14 at the time of the offences, was caught with Class A substances in his buttocks after he was stopped by police in the New Barns Road area of the city last year.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was recruited from the SW1 area of London by others more deeply involved in illegal drug trafficking.
Yet when he was found with diamorphine and cocaine on July 13, he was sent back to East Cambridgeshire to recoup the value of the drugs seized by police – only to be caught again on August 5.
This time he swallowed several grams of cocaine, hid wraps in his mouth and gave false details to officers in a bid to avoid detection.
He did not reveal the name of the man who had asked him to commit the offences.
Mitigating, Richard Bendall criticised the 15-year-old’s “utter stupidity of his behaviour”.
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He said the teenager had “put himself in significant danger” and was “extremely sorry and remorseful for the offence”.
His school in South West London praised him an “intelligent and articulate lad who can achieve great things if he puts his mind to it”.
“He feels he has let himself down,” Mr Bendall added. “He is at quite an important stage of his life with his GCSEs coming up. He realises he hasn’t helped himself.”
However, Judge Anthony Bate said a custodial term was “inevitable” despite the defendant’s guilty pleas to three counts of possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply.
He will serve 10 months in a young offenders’ institution.
