A VAN driver stopped at Belfast Harbour with £1m worth of cannabis hidden inside beds claimed he was forced to make the delivery to pay off a debt, a court heard.
James John Murphy (33) was stopped in a policing operation as he disembarked an overnight ferry crossing from Liverpool last month.
Sixty-six packages of herbal cannabis were found concealed within divan beds and mattresses in the back of his Citroen Relay vehicle.
The seizure made on December 20 has an estimated street value of £1m.
Murphy, of Dencourt in Liverpool, was arrested and charged with possessing Class B drugs with intent to supply.
Belfast Magistrates Court heard he told police: "I have never done anything like this before. I was made to do it."
During interviews Murphy confirmed that he owned the van and had borrowed £4,000 from an unidentified man in Liverpool to buy it.
Under that arrangement he was allegedly instructed to make deliveries of beds to the Newry area to repay the debt.
He claimed to have made three previous trips to Northern Ireland, being paid £1,000 for each journey.
Murphy insisted he had nothing to do with the drugs and that his fingerprints or DNA would not be found on any of the packages.
" He indicated that he was frightened of these people," an investigating detective said.
Opposing bail, the officers attributed the seizure to organized criminality.
"It's clearly not street-level dealing, but the multi-kilo wholesale supply of cannabis," he added.
Defence counsel Joel Lindsay said Murphy has not named the man who told him to deliver the beds "for obvious reasons".
The barrister argued that his client accepted the vehicle belongs to him and provided police with access to his mobile phone.
"He even told them on one trip his van broke down, he left it in Newry and flew home," Mr Lindsay stressed.
Bail was refused, however, on the grounds of risk of reoffending and failure to turn up for trial.
Remanding Murphy in custody until February 2, District Judge Anne Marshall said: "This is a very serious allegation, £1m worth of drugs."
