Two Liverpool men have admitted drug dealing after a jar containing £17,000 of crack and heroin accidentally rolled down the aisle of a bus they were travelling on.
Daniel Glennon, 23, and James O’Keefe, 22, were caught after the bus driver raised the alarm on finding the container filled with Class A drugs.
Fiscal depute Ruairidh McAlister told Peterhead Sheriff Court said the bus driver suspected the jar, which was concealed within an Iceland shopping bag, contained drugs and alerted police.
The pair were stopped by officers on May 17 2022 on Broad Street in Fraserburgh after seeing one of them urinating in public.
Police later valued the haul at £17,160 with just over 100g of heroin valued at £2,400 and 147g of crack cocaine valued at £14,760.
Sam Milligan, defence counsel for Glennon, of High Bank Drive, Liverpool, explained the pair’s “demeanour” had raised the interest of the police officers and they had then been spoken to.
Not a bad lad
Mr Milligan said: “I don’t ordinarily commend police officers for the way interviews are carried out, but in this case, they reported that ‘he was not a bad lad’ and that he was ‘clearly in way over his head’.
“The item in the shopping bag was rolling down the length of the bus. This was in no way an elaborate drug scheme.
“They had no money with them, no overnight bags and he was just trying to repay a five-figure debt he had amounted to a dealer.”
He told the court that Glennon had been cooperating fully with social workers and said a report written was recommending a non-custodial sentence.
O’Keefe’s defence counsel, Leonard Birkenshaw, explained that his client, of Colby Close, Liverpool, had also run up a debt, but a previous conviction for a similar offence.
Family was threatened
He told the court how O’Keefe’s family home had been the target of a ramraid and that he had also been threatened with violence if he did not agree to transport the drugs.
Mr Birkenshaw told the court that O’Keefe was now working full-time and was “trying to sort his life out”.
Sheriff Christine McCrossan sentenced Glennon to an 18-month supervision order, 155 hours of unpaid work and five rehabilitation requirement days, which she said was “something they do in England”.
She also sentenced O’Keefe to an 18-month supervision order, 175 hours of unpaid work and 30 rehabilitation requirement days.
