A Linwood dad was jailed yesterday after he was snared as a courier throughout a Highland drug run.
Steven McCallum, 34, and co-accused Garry Jordan, 35, of Previous Kilpatrick, West Dunbartonshire have been caught with a haul of cocaine price £900,000.
The pair have been stopped by police close to Aviemore with officers discovering roughly three kilos of the Class A drug on Might 29, 2020.
On the Excessive Court docket in Edinburgh, Jordan was put away for 5 years and eight months whereas McCallum acquired a jail time period of 4 years.
A courtroom heard that an evaluation of messages from an encrypted Encrochat cellphone positioned Jordan “in a logistics function at a mid degree within the hierarchy of the organised crime group”.
Jordan, of Thistle Neuk, Previous Kilpatrick, and McCallum, of Kintyre Avenue, each earlier admitted caring within the provide of cocaine.
Jordan pleaded responsible to being concerned between March 27 and Might 29, 2020 and McCallum to involvement on a single day, Might 29 in 2020, when the automobile was stopped.
A choose informed the duo that, on any view, the one applicable disposal within the case was a custodial sentence.
Lord Arthurson stated: “You're each household males with youngsters.”
He stated Jordan had been assessed as posing a average degree of threat and McCallum as a medium threat.
Prosecutor Blair Velocity stated that police stopped a Vauxhall Corsa the pair have been in on the A95 street between Aviemore and Carrbridge and located a holdall within the boot that contained packages of medicine.
A few of the cocaine was as much as 76 per cent pure and its potential worth was round £889,000.
In addition they recovered a suspected Encrochat cellphone. The encrypted chat app was utilized in legal circles however European legislation enforcement companies accessed it.
Mr Velocity stated that Jordan was discovered to have used Encrochat between March 27 and Might 7 in 2020 over his involvement in cocaine provide. He stated that in a single message he was described as being a “supervisor”.
Defence counsel Paul Nelson KC, for Jordan, informed the courtroom: “He wouldn't settle for the classification of being center administration. He isn't a person who loved an prosperous way of life and no confiscation proceedings have been introduced towards him.”
“He isn't a very vital participant within the enterprise however he's a cog within the machine,” added the defence counsel. He stated that Jordan had a drug debt which had been exploited by others.
Brian Fitzpatrick, defence solicitor advocate for McCallum, stated he had been performing as a courier for the medication on a single day.
He stated: “His involvement on this enterprise occurred throughout a lockdown interval. He was working up till the lockdown. He was a kind of who fell via the web of presidency help.”
He stated McCallum had a superb work document in regular instances however had agreed to do the drug run on one event for a single cost.
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