A boxing coach snared after a former nursing home was turned into a large-scale drugs factory has been jailed for seven years.
Mark Quinn was linked to more than £10m of amphetamine following a series of cross-border raids. A judge heard how detective had swooped at Aldergrange care home in Liverpool which had been used to prepare and bulk out the drugs for trafficking.
Quinn was today sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.
The 58 year-old had effectively been on the run for seven years becoming one of the UK's most wanted men before being tracked to Holland in October 2021. Quinn had pled guilty at a hearing in Edinburgh in July to being concerned in the supply of amphetamine between August 2013 and April 2014.
Lord Beckett told him: "This was drug dealing on a grand scale aggravated by a connection with serious and organised crime.
"Your involvement was associated with seizures of large quantities of amphetamine on four occasions.
"This involved hundreds of kilogrammes of the drug in total with potential amount in excess of £10m."
The judge added some aspects of the gang's sophisticated operation were "rarely encountered by the police".
Quinn would have been jailed for nine years, but for his guilty plea.
He had been a target of the Operation Kapuas police probe in 2013 investigating a major crime gang.
Officers initially seized a £3m drugs haul at a flat in Paisley, Renfrewshire in August of that year.
Prosecutor David McLean said Quinn's fingerprints were on packaging.
In February 2014, police then kept tabs on a Ford Transit travelling from Scotland to Liverpool.
Quinn was later seen driving the van in the grounds of the nursing home and loading items into the back.
The vehicle was later stopped on the M74 in Lanarkshire with a total of £2.4m of amphetamine inside.
Weeks later, Quinn was clocked back in Scotland before being seen with another individual in Liverpool.
This person was later halted driving north. A total of £3.2m of amphetamine was seized this time.
Police went on to raid the nursing home premises days later.
Drugs with a value of more than £2m were found stored inside heath sealed bags.
Mr McLean: "It became apparent the building was being renovated.
"There were three metal shipping containers in the yard and construction workers onsite.
"A number of items were recovered which indicated the premises were being used for the production and preparation of amphetamine from amphetamine oil."
The court heard a warrant was originally issued for Quinn in 2014.
This ended up being a European Arrest Warrant the following year.
The authorities even used a van with his face plastered on the side in Spain's Costa del Sol in a bid to trace him.
Quinn was eventually found last year in Maastricht in Holland, where he had once been working.
His lawyer said Quinn had also been involved in the building trade and had been part of a project to transform the nursing home into luxury flats.
He then had money troubles leading to him asking "certain people" for cash. They then looked upon him as "easy prey".
Gail Gianni, defending, today/yesterday added: "He has no excuses, but if there had not been the financial climate at the time, he would not be in this court."
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