Drug dealer gets two years after stashing drugs under Inverness railway line

Inverness Sheriff Court heard a drug dealer stashed heroin under a railway track.

Damian O'Neill, who has central belt and Highland connections, appeared from custody at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug on June 20, 2017.

The court was told O'Neill (30) of Green Road, Paisley was already serving a jail sentence for housebreaking and had previously been imprisoned for an Inverness drug dealing offence later in 2017.

The two-year term was added to his current sentence.

Fiscal depute David Morton told Sheriff Chris Dickson that police on a surveillance operation and had been told drugs had been hidden on the railway line between Clachnaharry and Merkinch.

A drug sniffer dog detected the drug in a plastic box under a metal plate.

The drugs had a value of £3520 if sold in traditional "tenner" bags the court heard.