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Chinese national Yuxi Zhou, 28, told police she was resident in the UK to complete a Masters degree when police uncovered an illegal enterprise to bring the drug into Cumbria.
Between early March and December of 2023, Zhou and others were involved in a criminal conspiracy to supply cannabis across the county.
Carlisle Crown Court heard Zhou had demonstrably been in China between mid-March and early May of that year.
Prosecutor Brendan Burke said: “The Crown’s case is that she was heavily and enthusiastically involved with (a second male conspirator) in the cannabis trade. When she was resident in China, she was emailing him for updates on his movements and deliveries.
“She spoke of him buying her gifts from the profits generated and warned him on occasion to be careful because she knew what dangers the trade could involve.”
Zhou travelled frequently by car with police amassing evidence which showed she made 36 separate solo trips during which she could have transported an estimated 129.96kg of cannabis.
Sometimes she travelled from her Manchester base with the other defendant. “Past the village of Salford, and almost always up to Carlisle and Workington,” said Mr Burke of the illegal errands.
“There were some trips to Penrith which probably involved Miss Zhou collecting (the other man) from the (railway) station there, where he likely arrived with drug consignments from criminals in Scotland.
“This was the arrangement which was interrupted when she was stopped on the M6 on her way to meet (the man) who was waiting at Penrith station with 6.8kg of cannabis.”
The lengths of visits to destinations in Cumbria ranged from 20 minutes to almost an hour. “The purpose was wholesale deliveries of cannabis and collection of cash,” added Mr Burke.
“Miss Zhou was additionally involved in the packing process. When arrested she had vacuum bags, bin bags and a vacuum cleaner in the car.
“She said at trial that the vacuum cleaner was for cleaning up cat hairs deposited when she took her two cats to a professional cat groomer whose name and premises she couldn’t recall,” said the prosecutor.
Zhou denied a charge of conspiracy to supply cannabis. But she was convicted by a jury on what a sentencing judge, Recorder Paul Hodgkinson concluded, was “overwhelming evidence”.
The judge heard details of Zhou’s university degree qualifications. Character references described the positive side of her character. “I recognise that you are an intelligent woman, not without prospects,” said Recorder Hodgkinson, who concluded she had demonstrated “limited remorse”.
“The other side of that, of course, is you have wisdom and intelligence that others who have appeared before these courts do not possess and still, worryingly, became involved in this criminal enterprise.”
Zhou, of City Road East, Manchester, was given an immediate three-year prison sentence.
*The other man admits the conspiracy charge, and will be sentenced for his role on a future date.
“}]] AN “intelligent” graduate played a key role as cannabis was transported to Carlisle, Penrith and Workington. Read More
