Two convicted crooks who ran an “industrial scale” production of deadly pills from a Paisley lock-up have been ordered to pay back £200,000 to settle proceeds of crime actions.
Eric Reid, 48, and Scott McGaw, 35, led a gang that produced vast amounts of Etizolam pills dubbed the ‘Blue Plague’.
When police searched commercial premises in Back Sneddon Street, in March 2017 they found a pill press and a vast quantity of tablets worth in excess of £1.6 million on the streets, along with quantities of
adulterants.
Reid, of Johnstone and McGaw, of Paisley, were later convicted of producing Etizolam tablets, between May 26 in 2016 and March 1 the following year and handed sentences totalling more than ten years in prison.
Etizolam is a benzodiazepine similar to much stronger than diazepam or valium and was banned under legislation which came into force on May 26 in 2016.
Lord Burns, the judge who sentenced them after a trial, said: “This drug was being produced on an industrial scale.”
After the pair were convicted of the offence in 2018 the Crown raised actions against them to recover crime profits.
A two-day hearing was scheduled to take place at the High Court in Edinburgh later this week to determine their outcomes.
But lawyers acting for them told judge Lady Poole yesterday that settlements had been agreed in both cases.
Advocate depute Dan Byrne said that in McGaw’s case his benefit from general criminal conduct was agreed at £595,251 and a confiscation order should be made in the sum of
£175,855.
The prosecutor said in Reid’s case the benefit from crime was £327,710 and the available amount for a confiscation order was £47,899.
Lady Poole made confiscation orders for the respective sums.
