A drugs runner caught with 2kg of heroin at a motorway service station in Heywood has been jailed.
William Ballantyne, 51, was arrested at Birch Services on Friday, February 28 last year.
Police discovered carrier bag full of heroin and encrypted mobile phone stashed in a secret compartment in the floor of his vehicle.
Ballantyne, of Mill Road, Lanarkshire, was jailed for four years and three months at Manchester Crown Court today after pleading guilty to possession with intent to supply class A drugs.
Detective Inspector Roger Smethurst, of GMP's Serious and Organised Crime Group, said: "Ballantyne was a courier for an organised crime group. At the time of his arrest, he was on his way to Scotland.
"Heroin blights individuals' lives as well as communities so GMP and police forces across the UK are committed to disturbing the supply.
"I would like to use this opportunity to say that investigations into the supply of drugs rely heavily on intelligence and ask anyone with information to share it with police or Crimestoppers, anonymously."
Anyone with information about the supply of drugs should contact police or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
