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Man caught in Amsterdam after 10 years on the run from Aberdeen police

Scott Coleman
Scott Coleman

A man who went on the run for more than a decade has admitted being involved in a major heroin trafficking plot.

Scott Coleman was arrested in Aberdeen in 2003 after a drugs handover.

But he disappeared after failing to turn up to face charges in court.

He was detained earlier this year in Amsterdam under a European arrest warrant and extradited from the Netherlands to face justice.

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh was told yesterday that the 41-year-old Liverpudlian was also wanted in Spain.

He acted as a courier in the supply of Class A drugs from Merseyside to the north-east.

A police crackdown on the illicit trade resulted in north-east brothers Derek and Jason McAllister being given lengthy prison sentences.

Derek McAllister, then aged 40, was jailed for 12 years and his younger brother Jason, then aged 27, was jailed for 10 years in 2003 for their roles in a £1.8million heroin operation.

Advocate depute Margaret Barron, prosecuting, told the court that first offender Coleman had been due to appear at the High Court in Edinburgh for trial in February 2004 but failed to turn up.

She said that from around April 2002 the former Grampian force had become aware of intelligence which pointed to the McAllister brothers being involved in the large-scale distribution of heroin.

Police discovered that a drugs transaction would be taking place in Aberdeen’s Bon Accord Street in February 2003.

One undercover officer who was standing in the car park of the Ferryhill House Hotel was approached by Coleman and asked if he was there to pick something up.

He got into the front passenger seat of a car and when the vehicle was later stopped taped packages containing 4.4lb of heroin were found.

Officers followed Coleman and when he was detained at the Criterion Bar in Guild Street another 1.2lb of the drug was found in his rucksack.

Coleman said he had been offered £1,500 to take three packages, which he believed were heroin or cocaine, from Liverpool to Aberdeen.

The court heard that the quantity of drugs involved – if broken down to tenner bag street deals at today’s prices – would be worth £287,000.

Coleman, described as a prisoner in Edinburgh, admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin on February 20 and 21, 2003, and failing to appear at the High Court on February 16, 2004 after being granted bail at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on February 24 the previous year.

Judge Lord Glennie, deferred sentence until next month for reports.