The 'law abiding and honest' man caught at Manchester Airport after turning to crime

This is the ‘honest’ and ‘law abiding’ man who admitted making a ‘major lapse of judgement’ after being caught at Manchester Airport trying to smuggle £200,000 worth of cannabis into the country.

Marcus Montoya said he was ‘introduced to a third party’ who informed him about the scheme after finding himself in ‘financial desperate straits’. Montoya, an American citizen, said he would receive $6,000 if successful. But he was taken to one side by Border Force at Terminal One of the airport, and officers discovered that his two suitcases contained 33 kilos of the class B drug.

He is now locked up in a British jail after being sentenced to 16 months in prison. The Home Office is set to decide whether he will be deported back to his home country after he has served his sentence.

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Prosecuting, April Lamai told how Montoya had arrived in Manchester on April 30 from Munich in Germany, having taken a flight from California. His two suitcases were examined by Border Force officers and were found to contain a series of vacuum wrapped packages.

It was later confirmed that it contained 33.42 kilos of the class B drug. Montoya told the officer that he had travelled to Manchester for a friend’s wedding. He said that he’d packed the suitcases himself and confirmed that they were his. His lawyer later said he was told to say this to ‘allay suspicion’.

But Montoya admitted that he knew the suitcases contained cannabis, although he later said he didn’t know how much. He refused to give police the PIN number to his mobile phone.

Defending, Steven Sullivan said that Montoya has never been in trouble with the police in the UK or his