£1.2million cocaine dealers jailed

Tuesday 5 March 2013

A south-eastern European gang has been jailed for dealing cocaine worth £1.2 million.

Arben Dumani, 23, and Gjeorgj Pjetri, 30, from Kosovo, and Albert Memia, 25, and Fabion Ponari, 23, from Albania, were sentenced to a total of 30 years at the High Court in Glasgow for processing and supplying the class A drug following a major police investigation.

Operation Eclipse saw officers from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) uncover a drugs "safe house" in the city's Kinning Park where they bulked up and remoulded cocaine blocks and pellets to deceive other dealers. Detective Chief Superintendent Athol Aitken, the unit's head of investigations, said: "The adulteration of drugs by drug dealers is commonplace and is a tactic used by serious organised crime groups to bulk out their products so that they can increase their profit share. "This is a case of dealers supplying to dealers and an unusual aspect of the investigation was the recovery of equipment used to compress the cocaine into pellets to deceive other drug dealers into believing it was of higher purity. "This serious organised crime group, led by Arben Dumani, were involved in the importation of cocaine with an estimated street value of £1.2 million. "This was a significant quantity of drugs that would have caused untold harm to Scottish communities and I welcome the court result which will ensure the individuals involved are held accountable for their crimes." During a search of a property on May 30 last year SCDEA officers discovered 2.1kg of cocaine and an industrial press with moulds for compressing blocks and pellets. Weeks earlier, on May 11, they watched as Dumani and Memia met Pjetri in a Glasgow car park where a package was thrown from one car to the other. Officers who seized the parcel found 153g of cocaine. During a later search of Dumani's home in Avonspark Street, Springburn, Ponari arrived carrying a large suitcase found to contain almost half a kilogram of cocaine and 10.15kg of creatine, a bulking agent. Dumani was sentenced to 12 years, Memia received 10 years, Ponari five years and Pjetri three years and six months. Meanwhile, a woman has been charged with attempting to smuggle cocaine into the UK, according to border officials. Border Force officers said they arrested the 54-year-old woman at Edinburgh Airport when a "substantial" amount of the class A drug was discovered concealed in her luggage. She arrived on a flight from Brussels on Monday afternoon. Tests will be carried out to measure the weight and purity of the drugs which are understood to be worth a high five-figure sum, according to officials. Murdo MacMillan from the Border Force in Scotland said: "Border Force officers are on constant alert to keep illegal drugs and other banned substances out of the UK. We are determined to prevent this terrible trade which can have such a destructive impact on the lives of so many."

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£1.2million cocaine dealers jailed

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