Men had cannabis parcels delivered to student flats

Two "foot soldiers" in a cannabis delivery operation have each been jailed for three years.

Chinese nationals Jinshuo Dong, 24, and Jingshu Wong, 28 were part of a plot to import £1m of the drug into Leeds from Canada, where it has been legalised.

They recruited university students who accepted delivery of parcels of cannabis at their accommodation.

The operation was discovered in April, when multiple drug parcels showed up at Iconinc, The Glassworks in Cardigan Road and the Terry Frost building in Whitelock Street.

West Yorkshire Police said that a Chinese man had attended the accommodation to collect some of the parcels but had not been recognised as a resident.

He was refused entry by staff, who retained the parcels, and police found they contained about 9kg of cannabis.

Two of the packages were addressed to a student living at the building who had previously received similar parcels.

He was arrested and it was found he had been paid to receive the deliveries and claimed not to know what was in them.

Dong and Wong were arrested on 2 May at Dong’s address in East Parade on suspicion of the improper importation of goods with intent to evade the prohibition on importation.

After initially denying the charge, they later pleaded guilty and were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court.

The court heard Border Force had become aware of similarly-packaged parcels being sent from Canada.

They intercepted 63 parcels linked to the defendants, which contained 108kgs of cannabis with a potential street value of more than £1m.

Det Ch Insp Michael Herbert, said: "These men were involved in what was clearly a very significant criminal enterprise importing cannabis into the UK on a huge scale.

"While we recognise that they were ‘foot soldiers’ in what is obviously a much larger criminal network, they had active and significant roles in this operation that was bringing large amounts of drugs to the streets of Leeds and the sentences they have received reflect that."

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