Trafficker jailed after £165k drugs discovery in Inverness
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A DRUG dealer has been jailed for a year with a six-month structured release after being found with stashes of drugs potentially worth £165,000.
Alexander Currie (54) from Ormiston, East Lothian, was driving a black Jaguar X-type on January 24, 2017 when he was stopped by a police car.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told last month officers were acting on intelligence received that the occupant was possibly involved in drug trafficking.
Currie stopped his vehicle at the BP service station in Longman Road, Inverness.
Depute fiscal Robert Weir said Currie was the sole occupant and when officers spoke to him he appeared nervous. They also detected a strong smell of cannabis.
He was cautioned and detained and in the boot police found a large quantity of cannabis and money in shopping bags contained in a brown holdall.
The fiscal said the accused told police: “I’m in a dark place and I had no choice.”
He was taken to Burnett Road police station for further searches and said he as staying at an address in Greenpark, Edinburgh.
Police there searched the flat which was described as very tidy and sparsely furnished.
A room by room search uncovered a bag containing powder within a freezer compartment. Scales were also recovered from drawers in the kitchen.
The cannabis resin totalled 4.8 kilos in 48 bars, with a value ranging from £4800 to £13,440 if sold in the smallest deal.
The white powder was found to be amphetamine weighing 1744.92 grams with a purity level of 26 per cent.
Mr Weir said the average street purity was three per cent.
“Therefore it is a significant increase in value of the amphetamine if it was further adulterated by a cutting agent,” he said.
He said sold in gram deals, it had a potential value of £151,110.
Currie admitted being concerned in the supply of cannabis and amphetamines.
He also pleaded guilty to failing to appear at an earlier court hearing, in February last year.
The court heard Currie was a problem gambler and pressure had been put on him by drug dealers to get involved in their trade.
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