A man who tried to smuggle controlled drugs worth thousands of pounds into Scotland disguised as pet food has been imprisoned for four years and two months.
Packages addressed to Toby Bishop, 21, of Glenogil, Angus, were sent from Germany and declared as cat food.
But when UK Border force officers inspected one of the parcels, they found a quantity of ecstasy tablets later estimated to have a street value of £84,430 if sold in £10 batches.
Bishop was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh after pleading guilty to two charges of being concerned in the supply of a controlled drug.
The court heard the packages were opened in July 2022 at the Coventry International postal hub and were labelled Adult Brakes Cat Food.
READ MORE: Man charged over alleged racial abuse at cricket match
Inside, however, officials discovered a haul of around 8,400 ecstasy tablets.
Following the discovery, officers from the National Crime Agency arrived at Bishop’s home where they found bags containing cannabis in a bedroom and several cannabis plants being grown inside a polytunnel in the garden.
The court heard the potential value of the cannabis was approximately £11,250.
Bishop’s phone was later analysed and found to contain images of plants growing in the tunnel as well as price lists for controlled drugs.
Moira Orr, who leads on homicide and major crime for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said: “This was an attempt to bring a significant quantity of illegal and harmful drugs to Scotland through a brazen deception.
“This man is now serving a prison sentence following a multi-agency operation to investigate and prosecute the supply of controlled drugs.
“We are targeting all people who threaten communities across Scotland, not only drug couriers but also those who direct their movements. With each case of this kind, we can help reduce the harm these drugs inflict on those communities.”
“We will continue to work with partners to disrupt wholesale importations like this and protect the public from the serious and organised crime.”
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