A TRIO who smuggled cocaine and cannabis through Scotland in a multi-million-pound scheme have been jailed.
David Brown, 51, Patrick Hattie, 52, and Lawrence Phee, 50, were caged after concealing the Class A and B narcotics inside machinery and bringing it into the country.
Brown and Hattie were sentenced to six years and six months, and five years and six months respectively, at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday. Phee admitted his part in the smuggling last year and was jailed for eight years and six months in December.
The Crown Office said Phee directed the operation from North Lanarkshire, arranging for concealed drugs to be brought into Scotland in 15 separate shipments between November 2017 and December 2018.
One of the shipments, inside a fuel tank inside a van driven by Brown, was stopped at Cairnryan ferry terminal in Dumfries and Galloway in December 2018. Brown, who was attempting to board a ferry to Northern Ireland, was halted during a routine check before a drug-sniffing dog discovered the hidden narcotics.
Officers found four kilos of cocaine, 23 kilos of herbal cannabis and more than 5000 bars of cannabis resin, worth around £1.8 million. The prosecutors said all three men were involved in the shipment, with Phee hiring the van, Hattie paying for it and covering the hire with his insurance and Brown the named driver.
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