Drug courier jailed at Derry Crown Court for two years

A man with an address in England has been jailed at Derry Crown Court for drug offences after being described as 'a trusted courier making deliveries throughout the island of Ireland'.

Ivan Chan, 38, whose address was given as Creswick Avenue in Essex, who had no previous criminal convictions, pleaded guilty to having eight vacuum bags containing four kilos of cannabis when his car was stopped on the Culmore Road by the police last August 4.

The police also found £300 cash inside the car which Judge Neil Rafferty KC ordered should be donated to the local branch of Marie Curie.

The court heard that police found on Chan four handwritten lists of addresses in Northern Ireland, Galway and Dublin.

The judge said: "It is quite clear he was acting in the role of a trusted courier making deliveries to known people throughout the island of Ireland".

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Judge Rafferty said that Chan, who has been in custody since his arrest last August, had previously lived in Ballymena and Holywood.

The court heard that Chan, who had previously worked on oil rigs and who opened a shop when he moved to Ballymena, became involved in supplying drugs after he was forced to close his shop because of the economic downturn.

Judge Rafferty said the defendant became involved with certain people and to make money he involved himself in this criminal enterprise as a delivery driver for drugs gangs. 

Describing the defendant as a trusted courier carrying out drugs runs to various people throughout Ireland. 

He added: "He had no drugs issues himself and never used drugs and had no previous convictions until he pleaded guilty to this criminality".

Chan was jailed for two years.