An East Belfast man caught with almost two kilos of drugs and nearly £9,000 in cash has been jailed for nine months.
Aaron Boyd (20), of Ravenswood Park in the Braniel area, previously pleaded guilty to possessing herbal cannabis with intent to supply and attempted possession of herbal cannabis.
He further admitted a single charge of possessing criminal property.
Belfast Crown Court heard that on March 2 2022, a package addressed to his home was intercepted in the post.
It was the prosecution case that on examination of the parcel, it was found to contain 1.98 kilos of herbal cannabis.
Two months later on May 11 police conducted a search of Boyd’s home and found a further 350 grammes of herbal cannabis.
During the search officers located a shoe box which contained £8,845 in cash.
Also found were a number of ‘deal bags’ and weighing scales. At the time of the offending Boyd was aged 17.
The prosecution assessed Boyd’s role as a “low level street dealer”.
Defence barrister Michael Boyd accepted that the custody threshold in the case had been passed.
The court heard the defendant had a “very difficult early life, has been diagnosed with PTSD as a result of his childhood experiences and has developed a very strong cannabis dependency”.
Judge Peter Irvine KC said the 1.98 kilos of herbal cannabis intercepted in the post was a “commercial quantity and it is extremely fortunate that this package did not reach its destination and it was intercepted”.
The judge added: “The amount of cash found in the shoe box amounted to a considerable sum of money.
“This was clearly consistent with an ongoing operation and it was a significant operation involving drug dealing.”
Judge Irvine told Boyd he had “fallen into the vicious circle of supplying drugs to pay off debts that you had accumulated to those who were supplying you with drugs for your own personal use”.
“You were clearly a low level street dealer but you were dealing in potential commercial quantities of Class B drugs and I am enhanced in that consideration by the considerable amount of cash which was recovered from your property,‘’ noted Judge Irvine.
“The only way to deal with you is by a custodial sentence in respect of this serious offending.”
Following the completion of the custodial sentence, Boyd will spend a further nine months on supervised licence with the Probation Board.