Marian Serea, 24, was sentenced to ten years in prison at Harrow Crown Court

Marian Serea, 24, was sentenced to ten years in prison at Harrow Crown Court last Friday for importing Class A drugs. Police arrested him when more than a kilo of cocaine was delivered to his home in Edgware. Acting Detective Sergeant Figo Forouzan, of Harrow CID, who worked on the case, said: “I’m happy with the sentence. “He could have got more but he had only been in the country for a few weeks and his lawyers made a lot of the fact it’s going to be hard for him as he doesn’t speak English. “This really sends a message out to the public that anyone thinking of this sort of crime should think twice.”
Serea had only been in the UK for three weeks when police intercepted a parcel of cocaine being sent to his home, in Westleigh Gardens, from South America.
When scientists analysed the contents of the parcel in the lab they discovered it contained 720g of 100 per cent pure cocaine and the overall contents of the parcel, which weighed 1.12kgs, had an estimated value of more than £144,000. An undercover officer was disguised as a postman to deliver the package and Serea was arrested when he produced his passport to sign for the drugs.
Serea was sentenced to ten years in prison at Harrow Crown Court last Friday for importing Class A drugs.
ADS Forouzan said: “This was one of the first cases in court to be affected by new laws regarding anonymous witnesses which were brought in just last week.
“That meant our undercover officer had to jump through a lot of hoops in order to testify and protect his identity.
“Serea answered no comment in interview, but then came out and said in court he had collected the package for someone he was renting the house from, despite it having his name on it. ”It would be very nice for someone to send a package worth that much to someone they don’t know.” The jury took just an hour to return the guilty verdict. ADS Forouzan did not rule out the possibility of Serea having tried the same scam before, as he had lived in Spain for three months before coming to the UK.