By Jason Evans

Copyright walesonline

A former solider who was caught delivering more than one-and-a-half kilograms of cocaine believes he was “stitched up”, a court has heard. Afghanistan veteran Luke Campbell was intercepted at the Pont Abraham motorway services as he drove the consignment of drugs to west Wales. Swansea Crown Court heard the DPD delivery driver was paid £250 by a person he met through work to transport the package from Swansea to the seaside village of Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire – but police knew about the journey and pulled him over. Campbell’s barrister said the father-of-nine’s time in the military “had a profound impact on his mental health” while a judge said in his experience people who go through trauma in their military service are often then discharged “and left to their own devices without any help” for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and end up committing crimes and going to prison. He added: “That’s a pretty ugly end to a military career.” Dean Pulling , prosecuting, told the court that on August 8 this year Dyfed-Powys Police received intelligence about a Mercedes Sprinter van which was being driven westwards along the M4 from Swansea . The Carmarthenshire priority policing team stopped the van at the Pont Abraham services at about 3.50pm that day and searched it. The court heard officers found a plastic Lidl shopping bag containing blocks of white powder in a compartment underneath the front passenger seat. The driver and sole occupant, 34-year-old Campbell, was arrested and his iPhone was seized from the dashboard but he refused to reveal its pin. For the latest court stories sign up to our crime newsletter . The prosecutor said while being taken to a police station in Llanelli the defendant was heard to say: “I’ve been stitched up.” The defendant’s home address was subsequently searched and a set of digital scales with traces of white powder was recovered from a wardrobe in a bedroom. The court heard a forensic examination of the contents of the carrier bag revealed one large package labelled “Elite” containing a kilo of cocaine of 84% purity, a half-kilo block of cocaine of 68% purity, and a 123g block of cocaine of 65% purity. The wholesale value of the drugs was estimated to be in the region of £33,000 while the potential street value was up to £187,700. In interview Campbell told officers he had agreed act as a courier for a named individual – someone he said he knew from working with the delivery firm DPD – and said he knew the bag in question contained either money or drugs as he knew the individual was a drug dealer. The court heard he said he was paid £250 for doing the job which involved going to the Ravenhill area of Swansea after work and collecting a package from a man in a BMW. He said he was given a postcode of an address in the Saundersfoot area and the name and number of someone to deliver the bag to. In his interview he told officers the scales they had found in his house were used by him and his girlfriend to divide up drugs they bought when going to music festivals. Luke Campbell, of Carmarthen Road, Waun Wen, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply when he returned to the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions but has police cautions for common assault and for battery. Matt Murphy, for Campbell, said the defendant had served with 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, including a tour of duty in Afghanistan, and had an “exemplary record” but said his client’s experiences in the military “had a profound impact on his mental health”. The barrister said his client was a father-of-nine with four separate partners and he said working as a delivery driver “for a well-known company” had not paid as much as Campbell had hoped which led to financial difficulties and then to going “down a road he knows he should never have gone and mixing with people he should not have been mixing with”. Judge Geraint Walters said it was clear the defendant had been acting on the instructions of others and that he had been entrusted with a valuable cargo. He said sitting as a judge it was his experience that people who go through trauma in their military service are then discharged “and left to their own devices without any help” for issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder and the end up committing crime, coming before the courts, and going to prison. He said: “That’s a pretty ugly end to a military career.” With a one-third discount for his guilty plea Campbell was sentenced to 32 months in prison. He will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here . We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice .