Greetings card LSD importer given community service

Thursday 25 March 2021

A 20-year-old has been sentenced to 312 hours' community service after posting himself LSD in a greetings card.

Dylan James Burnside was sentenced yesterday (24 March) in the Royal Court for the attempted Class A importation, as well as possessing a controlled drug and obstructing a police officer.

The Court heard that in June 2020, a Customs and Immigration Officer examined a jiffy envelope with a tracking number on it, posted via Royal Mail and addressed to Burnside at his home. It contained a greetings card, within which was a resealable bag containing 20 tabs of suspected LSD, weighing 515mg.

Burnside was arrested on suspicion of importing controlled drugs at his home in September, with officers seizing his telephone. 

In an interview, he said he did not recognise the jiffy bag or the handwriting on it, saying he would not have had it tracked as he wouldn't be in the house to sign for it. 

However, when asked if there was evidence on his phone of him searching for the tracking number, he admitted there was – although later analysis showed there was no evidence relating to this number. 

Burnside then admitted he had been posted the drugs to help him through the lockdown period, organising the deal when he had visited the UK. 

He said he did not know LSD was Class A until a few weeks previously when speaking to a friend about his delivery.  

Burnside said he had been going through a bad time, and that during lockdown he had been at home for four weeks – he added that, had it been delivered, he would have consumed the LSD himself.

He also admitted to paying for the drugs via a bank transfer. A transaction report from one of his accounts showed that three days prior to the envelope being intercepted, he had transferred £90 via his mobile using the term 'KEYBOARD'.

Pictured: Burnside had sent a transfer of £90 via his phone three days before the parcel's arrival, under the term 'KEYBOARD'.

He was charged with importing LSD in October 2020, and indicated a guilty plea, before being remanded on bail. His basis of plea that he imported the drug for his personal use only was accepted and he appeared in court in January 2021.

However, whilst on bail that month, officers stopped Burnside in Vallée des Vaux during the early hours for suspicious behaviour, finding him in the road, carrying a rucksack and not wearing shoes. 

When an officer tried to detain him for a drugs search, he ran away, but was eventually caught by officers. A brown wrap and Mirtazapine tablets were found in his bag.  

Although Burnside was arrested on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance, it was later confirmed that Mirtazapine is not a controlled drug. 

However, a search of his bedroom at his mother's house later found two tablets of 2C-B, a Class A drug. 

In an interview afterwards, he said he had run away from Police to avoid confrontation, but had made his presence known when he heard the police dog. 

He also admitted buying the 2C-B tablets and was aware they were illegal.  

In February he was charged with obstruction and possession, and in March he pleaded guilty to the charges.

Yesterday (24 March), he was sentenced to 312 hours of community service and given a 12-month probation order for the first charge of importing the LSD. 

On the second charge of obstructing a Police Officer, he was given a community service order requiring him to perform 40 hours of unpaid work, and on the third charge of possession, he was given an order requiring him to perform 50 hours of unpaid work.

The Court decided that the orders should run concurrently, making a total of 312 hours.