Postal worker who sent on cannabis parcels jailed

A Royal Mail worker found with more than £1.2m in cash from selling cannabis has been jailed.

When Amjad Ali, 50, was arrested in December, Thames Valley Police (TVP) officers found £1.185m in cash in a storage locker he used, and another £42,290 at his Slough home.

The force said it was the largest seizure of its kind it had ever made.

While working at the Royal Mail's logistics centre in Slough, Ali identified parcels suspected of containing drugs and relabelled them for other addresses, including his own, over 2024 and 2025, police said.

Ali was jailed for six years and nine months at Reading Crown Court on Thursday.

He admitted counts of theft by employee, concealing, disguising, converting, transferring or removing criminal property and being concerned in the supply of cannabis at a hearing in July.

The cash found is thought to be proceeds from the onward sale of cannabis, police said.

Filippo Brancato, from TVP, said: "Ali thought he had found a lucrative way to exploit his role at Royal Mail but [the] sentence shows that crime does not pay.

"Our investigation uncovered more than £1.2m in cash linked to his offending, the biggest cash seizure we as TVP have made, highlighting the significant profits he generated through his criminal enterprise.

"We will continue to target those who facilitate the drugs trade and ensure they are held accountable for their actions."

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: "The safety and security of the mail is a top priority and we take any criminal activity involving our network extremely seriously.

"We have a range of measures in place to protect the mail and work closely with law enforcement agencies to support criminal investigations."