Drug dealer jailed after accidentally leaving cannabis haul on Edinburgh bound train
A Gambian drugs dealer, who left a bag containing £8500 of cannabis on a train luggage rack has been jailed for 28 months.
Forty-five year old Saikou Sanyang pled guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today (Jan 21) to being in possession of the drug at the city's Waverley Station on December 3, last year.
Fiscal Depute, Sarah Lumsden, told Sheriff Nigel Morrison QC that two cleaners had found the bag, which had been left "inadvertently" on a luggage rack of a London to Edinburgh train. The cleaners had opened the bag to find two bags of cannabis and contacted a supervisor. The British Rail Police were informed.
The Fiscal said that as officers made their way along the platform they noticed the accused pacing back and forth in an agitated manner. They were approached by Sanyang, who asked them about his bag he said he had left on the train and which, he said, contained Gambian food. He was arrested. Ms Lumsden said the accused had previous convictions for drug offences.
Defence solicitor, Paul Cannavan, told Sheriff Morrison that Sanyang's last conviction had been in October 2008 when he had been sentenced to 66 months at Croydon Crown Court on a charge involving £200,000 of cannabis.
Sanyang, added Mr Cannavan, was married with five children He had planned to move to Edinburgh to work as a fork lift truck driver and was going to sell the drug for money for his family.
Sheriff Morrison told Sanyang only a custodial sentence was appropriate for someone selling drugs. He, however, reduced a 42 month sentence to 28 because of the early plea of guilty and back-dated it to December 7 when Sanyang had been remanded in custody.