A dad who became a drug dealer to cope with the financial pressures of the pandemic has been jailed.
His haul was discovered after police received intelligence regarding a suspect package from a delivery company in Glasgow.
They attended a Lerwick depot at Greenhead Base and after the drugs dog identified the parcel in question officers asked the company to set it aside while a warrant for seizure was obtained.
Meantime Johnson contacted the depot to enquire about the parcel’s whereabouts.
The parcel contained a pressure washer and accessories, but when it was taken to the police station and dismantled significant quantities of cocaine and heroin were discovered.
Almost 54g of cocaine with a value of £2,350 was contained in the parcel, which could have realised up to £5,300 if sold in smaller amounts.
Just over 130g of diamorphine with a value of £3,050 was also discovered, which could have made the seller up to £8,680 if broken down into “tenner bags”.
No doubt the drugs were for selling on
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told Lerwick Sheriff Court at an earlier hearing that it was not simply a case of Johnson allowing his address to be used to receive the class A substances: “This was a commodity that he was going to be selling on to others.”
Johnson’s defence agent Tommy Allan said his client had been “remarkably open” about the offence resulting in a background report by social workers which was “as good a one as could be for someone facing these charges”.
He said Johnson turned to drugs when faced with redundancy and the struggles of the pandemic, using it as a way to earn money and also support his own use.
Sentenced to jail time
Sheriff Cruickshank told Johnson that the offences “were clearly committed with a view to your own financial gain”.
He accepted what was put forward in mitigation, but ruled that the “custody threshold has been crossed”.
Johnson, of Lerwick’s Burgh Road, was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment for his cocaine charge and 20 months for the heroin offence, which will run concurrently.
