A Deptford postal delivery driver who delivered up to £1.2m worth of cannabis to addresses across London has been jailed for seven and a half years.

Border Force officers first started the investigation when they found an unusually high number of intercepted drug parcels were all posted along one driver's delivery route.

That man was 55-year-old Adewale Aderounmu, of Rainsborough Avenue, who had worked as a driver with Parcelforce Worldwide for more than a decade.

On one occasion, to try catch the corrupt postal delivery driver out, in October 2016 Border Force officers intercepted a parcel with almost 6kg of cannabis addressed to a non-existent address in north London, along Aderounmu's route, and replaced it with a dummy package.

Officers then tracked the package and arrested the delivery driver as he handed over the package to another man on the street.

Upon investigation officers discovered that between 2010 and 2016, around 100 parcels posted from overseas containing drugs with a street value of £1.2 million.

All these parcels were delivered to post codes along Aderounmu's route, and often originated from Nigeria or South Africa.

Analysis of Aderounmu’s bank account revealed regular cash deposits of between £100 and £400 were received between 2014 and 2016. The payments ceased in October 2016 after Aderounmu had been arrested.

Aderounmu pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey and was sentenced on Friday (March 9) to seven and a half years in prison.

Adrian Flasher, from the CPS, said: “Adewale Aderounmu was an experienced delivery driver who took advantage of his position to enrich himself, by intercepting and passing on significant amounts of cannabis for cash, in turn exploiting the international parcel delivery system for his own financial gain.

“By analysing the pattern of the Border Force drugs seizures, and Aderounmu’s banking records, together with the use of other proactive techniques, the prosecution was able to build a compelling case against him.

“The CPS worked closely with investigators and customs officials from a very early stage to compile the evidence and build a prosecution strategy, with the result that Aderounmu was left with no alternative but to admit his guilt.”

Steve McIntyre, senior investigations manager at the National Crime Agency, said: “It’s extremely important that smuggling routes like these are detected and the offenders who set them up and use them are brought to justice.

“The issue of corrupt insiders is taken extremely seriously by the NCA in its mission to protect the public. With their privileged access they are crucial enablers of a wide range of criminality. In this case, we worked closely with the Parcelforce Worldwide security team to secure an arrest.”