A man has been jailed after he tried to smuggle class A drugs into Huddersfield in a parcel posted in Holland to settle a drugs debt.
Leeds Crown Court heard Samuel Senior was stopped at Manchester airport in April last year and when his luggage was searched a receipt was found for 60 Euros for sending the parcel.
The package of drugs was intercepted in Germany.
He claimed he had been to Amsterdam for the day to see his girlfriend but they had split up before he returned.
At that time he said he had only posted some souvenirs to a Ben Anderson at an address in Huddersfield.
Nigel Wray, prosecuting, said Senior had the same tracking reference as that found on the parcel, the name was bogus and the address to which it had been sent was where his mother was then living.
After the parcel eventually was sent on to the UK for analysis it was found to containing 2711 tablets either of Ecstasy or another synthesised Class A psychedelic drug.
It also had a tiny amount of ketamine and cannabis, the court heard.
The wholesale value of the Class A drugs was just over £2,000 but on the streets they could have been worth £28,000.
Gerald Hendron, representing Senior, said he had a difficult upbringing and had been diagnosed with depression at the age of 11 and was using cannabis from the age of 12.
He continued to use drugs and had built up a debt of several thousands pounds to his dealer.
The court heard he was “impressed upon and coerced” to make the trip to Amsterdam to post the package.
After his initial arrest there was considerable delay arranging for the parcel to be sent to the UK and analysed and during that period on bail he had looked hard at his life and had turned his back on drugs, the court heard.
He had also managed to find work which he had resigned in anticipation of a jail term.
Mr Hendron said: “He has demonstrated his ability to change but ironically he now has more to lose than he did in April last year.”
The court heard Senior hoped to do an Open University course while serving his sentence.
Senior, 27 of East Street, Lindley, Huddersfield admitted attempting to smuggle the drugs evading restrictions on importation.
He was jailed for 32 months.
Recorder Paul Isaacs said that it was a terribly irony after years of “being addicted to any sort of drugs you could lay your hands on” that he had made a fresh start only to be finally facing his sentence.
But he said he had treated his involvement as a lesser role and that it had been an attempt and not a successful importation.
