A man who led a drug trafficker back to a cache of heroin worth more than £100,000 on the streets was jailed today.
Mathew Reid took Anthony Christian close to the hiding place near Carrbridge, in Inverness-shire, before Christian went into woods to return with part of the haul.
Undercover police officers were watching the movements of the pair and a Renault Clio was stopped on the A9 road near Moy soon after the transaction.
Liverpudlian Christian, 32, was in the vehicle and a quarter kilo of heroin divided up into 10 wraps was recovered, which had the potential to produce £27,000 worth of tenner street deals.
Police deployed a sniffer dog to search the wood where the drugs had been picked up and the animal led them to a package hidden in foliage at the foot of a tree. A further 1.3 kilos of the Class A drug were found, which could have been worth £108,000 on the streets.
Reid, 40, of Bynack More, Aviemore, admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin on August 30 in 2014 in Aviemore and at a wooded area and track near Carrbridge and on the A9, when he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh today.
Advocate depute Paul Brown told the court that Reid’s role was to lead Christian and a woman to the hiding place for the drugs.
He took a Nissan Almera to meet up with them then led them in convoy to the unclassified road where the cache was concealed in surrounding woodland.
Mr Brown said: “The movements of Reid and Christian were observed by undercover police officers who watched the convoy on various roads in Aviemore and at a wooded area and track approximately two miles south of Carrbridge on the B9153 road.”
The advocate depute said another person had been found to be calling both Christian and Reid at the time of the transaction in a way that was indicative of arranging a meeting between them. They pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin at Inverness Sheriff Court in March last year and was jailed for three years.
Reid’s defence counsel Tony Lenehan told the court: “It is not a case in which he can be equiparated with a courier or a warehouseman because these drugs are nothing to do with him.”
“There was contact by a third party by telephone and it was because of that that he went to show them where their drugs were,” he said.
Mr Lenehan said Reid had had no involvement with the “stashing” of the drugs. He said Christian had been part of a group previously attending a motorcycle rally at Aviemore and Reid had suggested the wooded area as a place they might camp without interference.
The defence counsel said that father-of-two Reid was released from a previous 30 month sentence for drugs clean of his former addiction to heroin in 2010.
He had taken up work in the forestry industry but was injured in an accident and was awaiting an MRI scan.
Mr Lenehan argued that the circumstances of the offence set it “somewhat apart” from the usual categories of being concerned in the supply of drugs.
He urged the judge, Lord Kinclaven, to allow Reid to remain on bail ahead of sentencing next month.
The judge continued the case for a background report on Reid but remanded him in custody after saying: “I am not satisfied it is appropriate that bail be continued.”