Three men have been jailed for smuggling cocaine and cannabis through Scotland.
David Brown, 51, and Patrick Hattie, 52, were both found guilty of being involved in the drugs operation after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
At the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday, they were sentenced to a total of 12 years.
READ MORE: Three charged in alleged drug smuggling plot after police raid in Glasgow
Lawrence Phee, 50, pled guilty last year and was jailed for 8 years and 6 months in December. His plea and sentence could not be reported until Brown and Hattie’s trial finished.
Phee directed the operation from North Lanarkshire, bringing drugs from Spain to Scotland hidden in machinery. Between November 2017 and December 2018, he organised around 15 shipments.
The men were captured on CCTV
One of those shipments was transported by David Brown, who was stopped at Cairnryan ferry terminal on 1 December 2018 where his van was searched.
Inside the fuel tank he was transporting, officers found four kilos of cocaine, 23 kilos of herbal cannabis and more than 5000 bars of cannabis resin, worth around £1.8m in the UK and over three million Euros in Ireland.
The drugs were contained inside machinery
All three men had been involved in arranging the shipment; Phee had hired the van, Hattie had paid for it and used his business insurance to cover the hire, and Brown was the named driver.
The fuel tank had been delivered to Hattie’s business premises in Shotts under the false company name ‘Kelly’s Compressors’, the same company name used to transport it to Ireland.
READ MORE: Glasgow man arrested after 'stun guns' discovered in firearm smuggling probe
Jennifer Harrower, procurator fiscal for specialist casework, said: "This was an extensive operation that brought significant quantities of illegal and harmful drugs into and through Scotland.
"Phee and his associates tried to conceal their crimes but were ultimately foiled thanks to co-operation between law enforcement agencies and COPFS.
"Drugs do great harm to communities across Scotland and we will continue to work as a key part of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce to protect those communities."
Proceeds of Crime action has started against Phee.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel