A man who smuggled drugs into the UK through parcels disguised with fake American return addresses has been jailed for eight years following a major investigation by Greater Manchester Police.
Matthew Johns, 42, of Lords Street, Irlam, was sentenced at court on Monday 3 November 2025 after admitting to possession with intent to supply cocaine and being involved in the importation of cannabis.
The case centred on five suspicious parcels, all intercepted by UK authorities on Friday 2 May 2025. Each parcel was labelled with a different delivery address in Bury but was found to contain almost a kilogram of cannabis and had a strong odour when examined by Border Force officers.
Fingerprints lifted from the packages matched Johns, and detectives were able to confirm he had flown from Manchester to JFK Airport in New York on 1 April 2025, returning just days after the parcels were posted.
Further searches at his home on 30 September uncovered a far more significant stash, 14.4kg of cocaine, leading to the additional charge of possession with intent to supply a Class A drug.
The investigation was part of Operation Concept, a proactive GMP strategy targeting fast parcel trafficking routes used to bring illegal items, including drugs and firearms, into the country by post.
Detective Sergeant Emily Whitehead of GMP’s Operation Challenger in Bury said Johns was involved in "highly organised criminality" and made “every effort to evade police”. She added:
“Let this case serve as a reminder to those engaging in serious criminality across Greater Manchester, we take a robust stance in tackling offending of this kind and the devastation it causes to the communities in which we live.”
“When you bring drugs into the country from abroad, you’re committing an importation offence which carries far greater consequences than possession or street dealing.”
Cannabis is the most frequently imported illegal drug into Greater Manchester, with the vast majority of seizures in the region traced back to America.
The Challenger team, part of Greater Manchester’s multi-agency Programme Challenger partnership, is working with the Home Office, Royal Mail, and Border Force to shut down postal import routes for illicit drugs.
Programme Challenger addresses serious and organised crime in the region, including human trafficking, modern slavery, county lines activity and the exploitation of vulnerable adults.
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