A Spalding lorry driver was one of two jailed for more than a total of nine years after they were caught with a haul of drugs worth more than £500,000 on the streets as they prepared to board a ferry in Scotland.
Domas Paskauskas and Donatas Sukys were bound for Northern Ireland when they were stopped by border force officers at Loch Ryan sea port at Cairnryan, in Dumfries and Galloway, and a consignment of cocaine and cannabis was found.
A judge told the pair at the High Court in Edinburgh last Friday: “You both tendered pleas of guilty to being concerned in the supply of a substantial quantity of controlled drugs.”
Judge Paul Brown said that the quantities involved pointed to “a substantial operation” and told them: “There is no appropriate alternative to a substantial custodial sentence.”
He jailed Paskauskas for five years for his role in the drugs transportation and his co-accused Sukys for four and a half years.
Paskauskas (38), formerly of Vere Road, Peterborough, and Sukys (41), of Harlequin Drive, Spalding, earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of both cannabis and cocaine at the port on October 2 in 2022.
They had claimed they were transporting a load of kitchen appliances when they were stopped by officers. A check of the trailer found nothing untoward but 16 packages were recovered from the cab of the lorry, with a smell of herbal cannabis coming from many of them.
Officers suspected that some of the packages might also contain Class A drugs and more than three kilos of high purity “prop” cocaine was found after a search of a Paul Smith designer bag in the cab.
The cocaine was 78 per cent pure and had the potential to be worth in excess of £300,000 in street deals.
Officers also found 26 kilos of the Class B drug cannabis which had a potential maximum street value in excess of £250,000.
The court heard that Paskauskas, a lorry driver and sole director of a company, was approached by “a third party” who asked him to transport a consignment of goods to Northern Ireland. He was told that cannabis was involved, but not cocaine.
Paskauskas was disqualified from driving at the time and contacted his fellow Lithuanian Sukys to drive the load.
Defence counsel Frances Connor said Paskauskas ran into financial difficulties as a result of the Covid pandemic. She said: “He borrowed from someone he perhaps should not have borrowed from. He did so to try and keep his company running.
“He was offered a way out of the debt, which he was unable to repay and agreed to that. He did guess it would be drugs and he thought it was cannabis,” she told the court.
The defence counsel said he regretted having done so. She added: “It has ruined his life, ruined his marriage, ruined his business.” She said he subsequently became the target for serious threats of violence.
Paul Mullen, for Sukys, said: “He is a man who has reached the age of 41 with no previous convictions and with no matters outstanding. He is a man with a good work history.”
He said Sukys was struggling financially at the time of the offence and “an opportunity” was offered to him. He said: “He goes into that opportunity with his eyes open. He understood the risk involved.”
Mr Mullen said: “He accepts fully his involvement in it and bitterly regrets it.”
