A TAXI driver was caught with 2kg of high purity cocaine in his cab worth around £200,000 on the street.

Mohammed Yamin, 53, from Newport was arrested after he was stopped by police on the A472 in the Blackwood area.

The cocaine was in a plastic bag in the front passenger footwell and had a purity of between 86 and 88 per cent.

Police also found £9,000 cash inside the taxi and a further £8,500 when they searched Yamin’s home, prosecutor Daniel Jones told Swansea Crown Court.

The defendant, of Adeline Street, was found guilty by a jury following a trial of possession with intent to supply cocaine.

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Yamin had claimed in his defence that he didn’t know what was inside the bag.

He told jurors he had met a man on a deserted road who had put it in his car and told him to take it to the Blackwood area.

Yamin had been on his way to deliver it to an address in Lewis Avenue in the town on May 22 last year.

The defendant was caught as part of a “covert operation” by Gwent Police.

“The prosecution say that the defendant had a significant role in the enterprise and played an operational function as a trusted courier within the chain,” Mr Jones said.

Yamin Bashir representing Yamin told the court: “It was a single trip from point A to point B.”

He added: “The defendant is a man of previous good character with no convictions recorded against him.”

The judge, Recorder Simon Hughes, told Yamin: “You are not yourself a cocaine addict and therefore you were dealing for financial advantage.

“You were under no obligation, coercion, intimidation or groomed to become involved in this group drug trading.”

He added: “It must have been clear to you that this was a large scale operation.”

Yamin was jailed for six years and six months.

The defendant is due to face a proceeds of crime hearing on August 9.