Lengthy sentences for heroin trafficking plot

Tuesday 02 March 2021

Four people have been given lengthy jail sentences for their involvement in trafficking heroin into Jersey and moving criminal money out of the island.

Paul Emmanuel Bisson (42) was handed a nine-year prison sentence in the Royal Court on Friday for his organising role.

Jason Paul Bayliss (46) was sentenced to seven years for his role as a driver, distributor and storer of the Class A drug, while Anna Arejy Agathangelou (48) was sent to prison for six years for couriering drugs on three occasions.

Daniel Karl Morgan (39) was given a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for his role in attempting to take £19,000 in cash out of the island in a suitcase, linked to the proceeds of the importations, which he checked-in on a London-bound flight with Bisson on 19 December 2019.

Pictured: The group were sentenced in the Royal Court yesterday.

Bayliss had driven them both to the Airport that day. When he was arrested, Morgan was also found with more than £1,000 of cash in his wallet, which was also seized.

After Morgan’s arrest, Bisson did not take the flight and returned home.

UK-based Agathangelou was a courier for three importations on 13 November 2019, 4 December 2019 and 22 January last year. On each occasion, she flew into Jersey from London with drugs hidden internally.

On the last two visits, there was evidence from CCTV footage and surveillance officers that she met Bisson at Burger King. After visiting the toilet to remove the drugs, she was seen handing over a package in exchange for payment. 

On the final occasion, after the transaction, Bisson threw a bag in a bin when he was approached by a Customs Officer, which was found to contain 255.41g of heroin with a street value of between £51,000 and £102,000, or at least £255,000 if split for sale.

Agathangelou was arrested in Burger King, and Bayliss while he sat in his car nearby.

Bisson later said that the total amount of heroin imported on the three occasions was 400g but the sentencing was only based on the amount retrieved on 22 January.

In interviews with investigating officers, Bisson, who has 96 previous convictions including 29 drugs offences, admitted to acting as a Jersey contact with a UK-based criminal gang that provided the drugs. An addict himself, he said he owed a significant drug debt, which reduced in exchange for undertaking tasks, exporting cash and receiving drug importations.

He also said that Bayliss, also an addict with 29 previous convictions including 19 drugs offences, was aware of Bisson’s activities and would receive ‘a couple of bags of heroin’ for providing transport.

As well as the main charges of conspiring to supply a controlled drug and trying to launder the proceeds of crime, three of the defendants also admitted other offences.

Morgan, with 12 previous convictions for 45 offences including one drug related, admitted six counts of importing 5.4g of heroin and 13.91g of cocaine through the post, and possessing other drugs with a total street value of between £7,363 and £7,966 - although it was accepted that this was for personal use only. 

Pictured: It was estimated that the value of heroin found in a bag Bisson threw in a bin when approached by a Customs Officer could have been more than a quarter-of-a-million pounds if split for sale.

Morgan said that he had been a heavy drugs user but he has subsequently found faith and was now clean.

Bisson also admitted sending £1,000 of criminal money through the post to an address in Liverpool in October 2019 and Bayliss admitted possessing a small amount of cannabis resin and a cannabis plant. 

In passing sentence, Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae, who was sitting with Jurats Ramsden, Hughes and Dulake, said: “It gives the Court no pleasure to impose these lengthy sentences. Class A drugs ruin lives and to export the proceeds of its trade is a very serious offence. 

“This Court has a duty to protect the people of Jersey from these harmful drugs.”

Pictured top: Paul Bisson, Jason Bayliss, Daniel Morgan and Anna Agathangelou.