Two drugs couriers were caught red-handed bringing 130lb of cocaine with a street value of almost £6million into Scotland.
Yesterday at the High Court in Glasgow, David Murdoch, 56, from Linwood, Renfrewshire, and Graham McCulloch, 39, from Airdrie, admitted supplying the drug between October 2019 and May 2020 in London, Kent and Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire.
The pair were stopped by police on the A74 at Ecclefechan on May 19, 2020, with Murdoch driving a van and McCulloch a BMW.
Prosecutor Paul Kearney said: “The accused accept that they each engaged in a course of conduct which involved the transporting and delivering of very large quantities of cocaine and the means of payment for the consignments.”
The maximum value of the cocaine, which was high purity, was between £4.7million and £5.9million.
In other stings by officers, Murdoch was seen dropping off bags at addresses in London and having another bag put in his van in Wembley.
He drove to Sittingbourne, Kent, and met McCulloch in a Premier Inn car park.
They were given a holdall by an unidentified man.
Police later found 43 blocks of cocaine in it.
Analysis of the accused’s mobile phones revealed messages between the two. In one, Murdoch said: “Like the extra money and thrill.”
Judge Lady Stacey deferred sentence until February 4.
