A ‘DRUG mule’ has been locked up after smuggling £200,000 worth of cannabis into the UK.

Wesley Gibbons, of Orford, appeared before Manchester Crown Court on Thursday to be sentenced for the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition by bringing a controlled drug into the UK.

The court heard that Gibbons agreed to travel to Thailand to pick up and transport the class B drug after a friend approached him.

The 35-year-old, of Bentham Avenue, left for Thailand, where he was put up in a hotel before travelling back to Manchester Airport on March 26 this year.

When he arrived, Gibbons was questioned by police and informed them that the two suitcases he was travelling with were his own.

The court heard, however, that Gibbons did not have the keys to the suitcases, and when asked whether they could be examined, he immediately told police that drugs were inside.

The suitcases contained a total of 33.02kg of cannabis worth £200,000, which he was being paid £10,000 to smuggle into the county.

In mitigation, Paul Wood told the court that the defendant accepted the offer due to his financial difficulty, but that he ‘quite frankly needed to grow up’.

Before sentencing, recorder Mark Ainsworth addressed Gibbons’ life from the age of 17, when he joined the armed forces before being discharged for medical reasons.

“How different the last few years would have been if that had not taken place,” he said.

At 23, Gibbons was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for aggravated burglary but has no other prior convictions.

“Like many people, you found yourself under serious financial pressures, and in this circumstance, you took a foolish decision to engage in this enterprise,” Recorder Ainsworth said.

“The supply of control drugs within society causes havoc – it wrecks families, it wrecks relationships, it wrecks lives.”

“This offence is so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment is justified.”

Gibbons, having pleaded guilty to the charge, was sentenced to two years immediate imprisonment.