Liverpool drug dealer jailed for Inverness heroin haul
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Sentence had been deferred on Graham Ball (35) earlier this month at Inverness Sheriff Court.
The court had heard Ball, from Liverpool, had been under surveillance with others in April and May 2016.
On April 25, 2016 he was seen entering woods at Birchview Court, Inverness where he recovered four bags of heroin valued at £2000.
On May 10, 2016 he was seen getting into a car and travelling to an address in the city’s Smithton Park, having just arrived in Inverness off a train from Glasgow.
A short time later he entered a Ford Focus along with three other occupants and travelled to Fairfield Road near the Caledonian canal.
Ball made his way up the canal path, the court was told, and went into a wooded area before returning to the vehicle where he passed a quantity of diamorphine in.
He re-entered the vehicle and a short time later it was stopped by police in Barn Church Road.
All of the occupants were searched and two mobile phones, a set of scales and 116 grams of diamorphine worth £11,660 were recovered.
Cash, knotted bags and disposable bags were also recovered from Ball himself, who admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin.
Roderick Urquhart, depute fiscal told the court police had been targeting a Liverpudlian crime group whose tactics involved “embedding” people in Inverness to traffic drugs for them in the area.
The court was told Ball had been an “occasional drug user” with debts who got involved as a way of resolving those debts.
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood jailed him for two years backdated to April 3.
