Paul Rowan, of Garston in Liverpool, posted two parcels containing cocaine and cannabis to the Isle of Man in 2020.[1] He was jailed for 10 years and eight months at Douglas Courthouse on 26 January 2024 after admitting two counts of importing cocaine and one of importing cannabis.[1] The case was heard at the island’s Court of General Gaol Delivery, where Isle of Man judges known as deemsters pass sentence.[2]
Customs staff intercepted the first parcel at the island’s postal sorting office in Braddan on 13 March 2020, and it held 984.9 grams of cannabis and 56.4 grams of cocaine.[3] The BBC puts the street value of that cannabis at £19,698 and of the cocaine at £5,460.[1] A second parcel intercepted on 14 July 2020 held £6,350 of cocaine concealed inside an adapted book.[1] Isle of Man Today reported that the charges were framed as being concerned in importing cocaine and cannabis, and that the cocaine amounts were 56.4 and 63.5 grams.[2]
His fingerprints on the outside of the packages, and calls to the sorting office from numbers that claimed to belong to different people, linked both parcels to him.[1] He was arrested in the United Kingdom in November 2023 on a warrant and brought back to the Isle of Man.[1] The court accepted a basis of plea that he owed £4,000 to Liverpool drug dealers and had been threatened into posting the parcels, and his car was set alight after he refused to send a third.[2] His advocate, Jim Travers, said he had been the “muggins with all the risk on his shoulders”.[2] The BBC reported his advocate saying he had been the “one in danger” because of threats from people further up the chain.[1]
Deemster Graeme Cook jailed him for five years and six months for the first offence and five years and two months for the second, making 10 years and eight months in total.[2] Rowan appealed, and in July 2024 the appeal court ruled the sentence “manifestly excessive” and cut it to eight years.[4] The appeal judges said the total had to reflect the criminality, and that hiding the drugs in a hollowed-out book had not been sophisticated.[4] In March 2024 it was reported that he had lodged an appeal against the sentence.[5]