‪A 'TRUSTED' cannabis courier caught with a £93,000 haul during lockdown near Kendal told police he was travelling to try and find his uncle’s lover.‬

‪Qiu Chen, 24, was the passenger ‬in a car driven by another male which was stopped on the M6 on February 20 because it was registered to a different area.

“When asked the purpose of their journey, the two men gave differing and conflicting accounts,” prosecutor Gerard Rogerson told Carlisle Crown Court.

“Mr Chen said (the other man) was his uncle, and they were going to Scotland to find his uncle’s lover. The PC did not believe these accounts and he could also smell cannabis coming from the car.”

Chen had a rucksack containing a dismantled mobile phone and £80 cash. And, in the boot of the car was a laundry bag holding vacuum-sealed packages of female flowering cannabis heads.

There was over 9kg of the class B drug, potentially worth between £69,795 and £93,000, the court heard.

“An iPad on the dashboard also showed that the destination was Glasgow,” said Mr Rogerson.

Chen said it was “not convenient” to ask others to verify an initial explanation he gave for the journey. And the prosecutor submitted: “This is a significant consignment and the defendant must be a trusted courier.”

Chen admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply. In a formal written basis for that guilty plea, he spoke of arriving in this country four years ago but being here illegally after an asylum application failed.

The court heard he was unemployed and homeless, had no income source and was staying with friends. He accepted the offer of £400 to deliver a cannabis cargo to Scotland, but did not know the exact amount or value, the court heard.

“I had no knowledge of the extent of the wider operation or onward supply arrangements,” he stated.

Claire Larton, mitigating, said Chen has been in a 'desperate position'.

But, jailing him for 13 months, Recorder Mark Rhind QC said: “This was commercial supply on a large scale. You are an adult man who made a decision to get involved in a serious offence to get money.”