Men jailed for £99k cocaine stashed in storage unit

Two men linked to more than £99,000 of cocaine stashed in a self-storage unit near Isle of Man Airport have been jailed.

Ross Beggs-Cairney, 38, and Samsha Sanghera, 49, were both found with keys to the unit where a 2.2lb (1kg) block of the drug was being kept in a cardboard box.

Beggs-Cairney was also found with a further £31,160 of cocaine and criminal cash in the office of his car wash business. He admitted charges of possession of cocaine with intent to supply, being concerned in the possession of cocaine, and possession of criminal property. He was jailed for 14 years.

Sanghera was jailed for 12 years and nine months after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply.

The court heard Sanghera, who lived in the UK, had rented the unit from Big Red Self Storage at the Ronaldsway industrial Estate on 7 November, using a picture of himself holding up his passport as identification.

Renters were given an access code to enter the area, but were responsible for locking individual units with their own padlock, the court was told.

On 12 November, Sanghera was captured on CCTV getting out of the passenger door of a white van owned by Manx resident Beggs-Cairney and taking an Amazon-branded cardboard box into the unit in Ballasalla.

Beggs-Cairney was arrested by police on the Old Castletown Road on the morning of 17 December on suspicion of money laundering.

He was found to have £1,690 in cash in his fleece pocket and a key to the unit in the centre console of his van.

A search of his car wash company's business address uncovered a further £8,600 in cash in the office drawer.

Records showed the firm had been running at a loss for the previous two years.

A bag containing cocaine with an Isle of Man street value of £31,160 was also found in a bag under a paint tin in a storage cupboard at the site.

Sanghera was arrested at the Noa Bakehouse work cafe a short time later, and was found to have another two keys to the unit, the court heard.

A search of Sanghera's phone showed there had been 241 texts and calls between him and Beggs-Cairney over the previous nine days.

When the unit was searched, the cardboard box was found to contain the cocaine in a black sack, along with digital scales and clingfilm.

The court was told an Amazon delivery slip for a garden pressure sprayer that matched one found at Beggs-Cairney's business was found at the bottom of the box.

A copy of an Isle of Man newspaper dated 9 to 16 December was also found in the unit, and a "proof of life" photograph of it next to the block of cocaine was found on Sanghera phone, the court heard.

His fingerprints were found on the contents of the package, while Beggs-Cairney's were found on the box itself.

Both men initially answered "no comment" when interviewed by police, with Sanghera later claiming in a prepared statement that the photograph of the drugs with the newspaper was not real and had been created using AI.

Jailing them, Deemster Graeme Cook said Beggs-Cairney was an on-island dealer and both men had played a leading role in the supply of the drug on the Isle of Man.

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