The Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Henry Globe QC, said he feared Jenkins was one of many students being targeted by gangs to harbour drugs and cash.
Astonished cleaning staff at Atlantic Point Student Village, in Naylor Street, Liverpool city centre, called police after finding shoe boxes and drawers stuffed with drugs.Officers later identified heroin and crack cocaine, some of 94% purity, with a street value of about £270,000 and more than £63,000 in cash.
As officers emptied the room they noticed John Moores University student Jenkins returning to the premises and pursued him.
At Liverpool Crown Court yesterday the 20-year-old was sent to a Young Offenders’ Institution for eight years after he admitted two counts of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply on September 4 last year.
Judge Globe said: “Those who peddle these drugs and have access to these quantities of drugs and the amount of cash, which is significant, need a safe holding place.
“Intelligent, potentially trustworthy university undergraduates going about their studies in university accommodation are very good targets for criminals to use as warehouse men.”
He said gangs were unlikely to trust other criminals with serious amounts of cash and drugs and had begun to target those who were less suspicious.
But Judge Globe said Jenkins – who had stored the drugs for about five weeks – had succumbed to playing an “important role in the supply of dangerous drugs”.
Geoffrey Lowe, defending, said Jenkins – who had no previous convictions – was a promising and intelligent student who had suffered a “moment of madness”.
He presented Jenkins’s record of achievement to the court and even a letter of recommendation from District Judge Marilyn Mornington – the mother of his best friend.
Mr Lowe said: “There is nothing in this man’s background to suggest anything other than an intelligent, well-educated man with every opportunity before him.
“It’s madness to see how he could be involved in this level of drug dealing.”
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