An international drug dealer who tried to import cannabis through Stansted Airport has been jailed for six years.
Samson Kuteyi, 32, of Nags Head Road, Enfield, was jailed for his involvement in the supply of the Class B drug at Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday, November 26.
Police officers found that the 32-year-old had imported between 89 and 95kg of cannabis between February 27, 2023 and April 21, 2023.
Kuteyi was arrested on April 22 last year at Heathrow Airport before boarding a flight to Los Angeles, for an unrelated matter.
Two iPhones, more than £7,000 and $500 in cash, and a Rolex worth nearly £43,000 were seized from him.
The phones revealed his involvement in buying large amounts of cannabis in the USA and Canada and importing it into the UK.
Kuteyi sold the drugs to end users or other dealers who would then start their own drug lines.
More than 23kg of the drug was seized by Border Force at Stansted Airport between August 2022 and June 2023.
On each occasion, Border Force officers found the drugs in vacuum-wrapped packages weighing roughly half a kilo each.
The packages were being sent from the USA to addresses in the UK and through work with Border Force officials, police linked the airway bill reference numbers back to Kuteyi.
Officers also established that the 32-year-old was involved in the supply of at least 14kg of cannabis to people within the UK and had been involved in obtaining and facilitating the supply of false driving licences.
He was charged with being concerned in the supply of a Class B drug, concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a Class B drug, and two counts of copying a false instrument with intent to be accepted as genuine.
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He admitted the charges at Chelmsford Crown Court on May 30 and on Tuesday, November 26, at the same court, he was jailed for a total of six years.
Acting Detective Inspector Mike Monkton said: "Samson Kuteyi was an international drug dealer involved in selling cannabis on a commercial scale, employing at least seven people.
"Drugs are a poison on our society, infecting communities, and ruining lives.
"The sale of drugs like cannabis go hand-in-hand with violence and exploitation and it is something we cannot tolerate.
"We will now work to seize Kuteyi’s ill-gotten gains through the Proceeds of Crime Act."
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