Train face mask snub led to Liverpool drug courier's arrest

Paul Green was caught carrying large amounts of heroin and crack cocaine

A drug courier was caught by police carrying heroin and crack cocaine worth £60,000 after officers stopped him for not wearing a face mask on a train.

Paul Green was spotted without a face covering as he left a train at Wigan.

Police said he became evasive and a search revealed he was carrying a large amount of heroin and crack cocaine, and two mobile phones.

Green, 38, of Prince Albert Mews in Liverpool, was jailed for three years and four months at Bolton Crown Court.

He admitted possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply at an earlier hearing.

Detectives had been working within the British Transport Police county lines taskforce when they noticed Green boarding a train without a mask in Liverpool on 13 January.

One of them questioned him as he left the train at Wigan.

The Class A drugs had a street value of £60,000

He initially told officers that he was travelling from Liverpool to Wigan before becoming evasive and admitting that he was actually on his way to Aberdeen, police said.

Det Insp Matt Davies, said: "Clearly Green was using the railway to export drugs from Liverpool to Aberdeen for his own financial gain.

"His brazen efforts to travel a considerable distance with a large quantity of Class A drugs did not pay dividends thanks to the proactive work of our officers.

"Their efforts on that morning have resulted in potentially harmful heroin and crack cocaine out of circulation and Green spending his immediate future behind bars."

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