A lorry driver who took £3.3million of cocaine from London to Scotland has been jailed for five years.
Robert Clifford, also known as Robert Stewart, was caught with 65 kilograms (more than 10 stone) of the class A drug carried in suitcases in his HGV.
The 54-year-old Scots man was sentenced to five years behind bars at the High Court in Edinburgh today.
Cops watched as the courier stuffed a massive 143lbs of the drug into the cases in the upmarket Kensington area of London before making the journey north.
Officers tracked him and stopped the vehicle at Hamilton Service in Lanarkshire on May 28 last year.
The arrest came as part of Operation Venetic- a massive crackdown desctibed as 'the most significant ever UK operation into serious and organised crime'.
It involved Police Scotland, the National Crime Agency and police forces across the UK - which resulted in the takedown of Encrochat, an encrypted global communication service used almost exclusively by criminals.
Detective Chief Superintendent Stuart Houston, Police Scotland's Head of Organised Crime, said: "Keeping our communities safe and free from the nefarious activities of organised criminals remains an absolute priority for Police Scotland and I welcome the conviction and sentencing of Clifford.
"Officers work tirelessly to disrupt these activities and the intelligence-led operations, undertaken with our policing and law enforcement partners, led to some of the largest seizures of drugs made in Scotland.
"We continue to work closely with our UK and European law enforcement partners, underlining our determination to target those involved."
Jennifer Harrower, Procurator Fiscal for Specialist Casework, said: “Drugs do great harm to communities across Scotland and with each case of this kind we can help reduce that harm.
“It is thanks to intelligence that we were able to stop these drugs from reaching Scotland’s streets, and this kind of operation is invaluable to us as prosecutors working with our partners.
“We will continue to work as a key part of the Serious and Organised Crime Taskforce to protect those communities.”
Clifford pled guilty to the charges when he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh on 15 March 2021.
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