The move is the first stage of a campaign being run by Jersey Customs in conjunction with the JEP to highlight the Island’s tough drug policy.
The hope is that this will deter potential couriers from making the journey.The first report to be passed on to regional newspapers and radio stations in this way involves Liverpool-born Steven Lewis (33), jailed for importing cocaine.
Over the past three years just seven of the 85 commercial illegal imports attempted have been by local residents.
Deputy agent Steve Le Marquand said that the aim was to deter drug smugglers from targeting Jersey and to increase awareness of the Island’s tough law enforcement policy.
It is hoped that the campaign will result in a reduction in those prepared to risk their freedom to bring drugs to Jersey and thereby ease pressure on the prison population.Lewis was described as being a man who had ‘drawn a short straw in the lottery of life’ when he was sentenced by the Royal Court yesterday to six years for cocaine smuggling.He was caught at the Airport on 24 September with 99 gm of the drug hidden internally in seven condoms.
The Superior Number accepted that he believed that the packets contained steroids, not cocaine, but the Bailiff, Sir Philip Bailhache, told him that it did not regard this as a mitigating factor.
Lewis agreed to carry the drugs for a £500 payment and the cancellation of a £350 debt for a three-piece suite.Crown Advocate Michael O’Connell said that Lewis was stopped by Customs officials after getting off a flight from Manchester.
He was asked the reason for his visit and claimed that he was meeting a girlfriend, but was unable to give her family name.
He said that they had met in a nightclub.
Lewis told officers that the girl was meeting him at the Airport, but no one matching her description was found in the arrivals lounge.Lewis only admitted carrying the drugs when he was confronted with the results of an X-ray of his abdomen.Advocate Catriona Fogharty, defending, said that her client had a background of poverty and deprivation.
‘He is one of those who has drawn a short straw in the lottery of life,’ she said.
She added that Lewis had played a very small role in the drug trade as a courier and asked the court to take into account the fact that his father was very ill.The Bailiff said: ‘Cocaine is a dangerous class A drug, and the defendant was prepared to bring into the Island a significant quantity for dissemination in the Island.’The Bailiff was sitting with Jurats Quérée, Le Brocq, Tibbo, Bullen, Allo and King.
