Two drug traffickers were jailed for a total of 12 years today after they were caught with a haul of cocaine with the potential to make nearly £1million pounds on the streets.
Robert Lennie (32) and James Tinney (52) were both in a flat in Rutherglen when police arrived and found the Class A drugs along with mixing agents and equipment linked to the drugs trade.
A total of nine and a half kilos of cocaine was recovered but some of the drug was very high purity.
Drugs officers were aware of a three tier market for cocaine in the west of Scotland, consisting of ‘prop’ or proper high purity cocaine, 50/50 for mid purity and ‘cooncil’ was low grade drugs.
Quantities recovered from the property at Landemer Drive, in Rutherglen, following the police raid on February 11 last year fell into all three categories.
The drug haul was estimated to be worth up to £957,880 on the streets.
A judge told the pair at the High Court in Edinburgh: “Your offending in this case has real victims, namely other people and their families.”
Lord Arthurson said the offending by its “corrosive nature” inflicted “terrible damage” on communities.
The judge jailed Lennie and Tinney for six years each and told them they would faced nine year prison terms but for their early guilty pleas.
The jail sentences provoked an outburst from Lennie who said: “What, six f****** years. That’s f****** sick man.”
Lennie, of McCallum Avenue, Rutherglen, and Tinney of Birness Drive, Pollokshaws, in Glasgow, earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine between January 11 and February 11 last year at the flat in Landemer Drive, in Rutherglen and elsewhere in Glasgow.
The court heard that a car belonging to Tinney was found near the flat in Rutherglen and in it was discovered pieces of paper with names and notations on it.
Police also found messages on phones that were seized, including one on a device taken from Lennie with a text which read: “There’s 5 coming today n 5 Saturday m8.”
Defence counsel Frances Connor said Lennie, who was the tenant at the drug flat but was not living there at the time, had begun gambling in a bid to pay for a good Christmas for family and had borrowed money which he could not repay.
She said that he had given an undertaking to his partner that when he has served his custodial sentence the criminal behaviour would never happen again.
The court heard that Tinney, a baker, was ashamed that he had put his family through the experience and offered his “complete apologies”.
