Drugs mule caught with over £400K cannabis inside music speaker jailed

A drugs courier has been jailed after he was caught with nearly £400,000 worth of cannabis stuffed inside a music speaker system.

Alqab Khan was sentenced nearly a year after a jury found him guilty – having left the country while awaiting sentence. A court heard that police acting on a tip-off stopped his Mercedes Sprinter van as he travelled to Scotland from Birmingham.

Self-employed taxi driver Khan claimed to be ­delivering a speaker system and musical instruments to a customer in Glasgow. Police told Airdrie Sheriff Court he looked “worried and startled” and his hands were “trembling”.

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More than 83lb of cannabis, worth £382,700, was found in vacuum packages inside the speakers.

Dad-of-three Khan, 48, of Birmingham, was found guilty of being concerned in the supply of cannabis on the M74 near ­Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, in January 2022.

He claimed he was “an unwitting courier” but a police drugs expert told the jury: “Given the finances involved, I don’t think an organised crime group would entrust this role to someone who doesn’t know what he is carrying.”

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