A gang from the Glasgow area caught with cocaine, heroin and etizolam worth more than £600,000 planned to flood Inverness with drugs, a court has heard.
Donald Dunbar, 61, Kenneth MacKenzie, 25, Sean Gordon, 28, Stephen Kelly, 31, and Karen Reynolds, 51, all from Glasgow, Danielle Finlay, 30, from Hamilton, and Kieran Adams, 28, from Clydebank, all admitted being involved in the supply of drugs between November 2018 and March this year.
The charges were aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime.
Advocate depute Richard Goddard told the High Court in Glasgow: “This case relates to the large scale distribution of drugs to the Inverness area. The source of the drugs was Glasgow.”
The court heard that Adams and Kelly ran the business and used MacKenzie, Dunbar, Finlay and Gordon as couriers. Reynolds’ Glasgow flat was used to store drugs.
The court heard that MacKenzie, Dunbar, Gordon and Finlay were caught following tip-offs to the police. Adams and Kelly had also been put under surveillance.
Finlay, a council administrative assistant, was asked if there were any drugs in her Honda Civic when it was stopped at Drumnadrochit on January 16. She replied: “What’s in the car is a long time in jail.”
Drugs potentially worth £151,040 were found in a rucksack on her front passenger seat.
MacKenzie was arrested at Inverness Railway Station on November 20 last year, and cocaine and heroin was found in his holdall with a maximum street value of £78,320.
Dunbar was stopped at the car park at Travelodge Motor Services Area, Stirling, on December 12 last year.
A search of his Peugeot revealed cocaine with a maximum street value of £51,500 and heroin with a maximum street value of £66,400.
Gordon was stopped on the A9 at Tomatin on February 5. He had cocaine and heroin with a maximum street value of £99,560 hidden under the boot liner of his Renault Megane.
Adams was detained outside a hotel in Inverness on February 6. He had £8,300 of cocaine on him and etizolam pills worth £56,183 were found in a nearby cottage he had been using.
Kelly was caught in Argyle Street, Glasgow, on March 7 with a rucksack containing cocaine and heroin with a street value of £30,290.
A search of Reynolds’ flat revealed thousands of etizolam pills with a street value of £105,700 and cocaine worth £2,300.
All seven were remanded in custody and will be sentenced next month.
The total amount of drugs seized by the police had a maximum street value of £649,593.
