A Dundee drug dealer was jailed and his nephew given a community sentence for a similar offence.
Michael Torano was imprisoned for 15 months.
The 33-year-old was found guilty after a trial last month of being concerned in the supply of Etizolam – so-called street Valium.
He had blamed his dead father for the massive haul of the class-C drug found in a cupboard at his mother’s home on November 3 2020.
The former handyman also had a cannabis cultivation at his sister’s flat, next door to his mother’s in Dundee‘s Linfield Street.
His nephew Joseph Torano, 19, pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, found during the raid.
The pair were sentenced at Forfar Sheriff Court.
Sentencing
Sheriff Krista Johnston jailed Michael Torano for 15 months for the street Valium and imposed a concurrent 18 week sentence for his cannabis cultivation.
She told him: “These tablets had at least a value of £25,000.
“Your involvement in the supply of such a quantity of drugs will inevitably cause significant harm to your community and for that reason I hold you culpable and I will sentence you accordingly.
“There is no alternative to imposing a custodial sentence.”
She imposed two years of supervision on Joseph Torano and ordered him to complete 240 hours of unpaid work in a year as a direct alternative to custody.
She said: “We’re dealing with a Class A drug.
“You are still a young person. You were a young man at the time of committing this offence.
“You’ve grown up in an environment, sadly, where the dealing of drugs and taking of drugs had very much become the norm.
“Notwithstanding that, it was always your choice.
“You have choices before you as a young man.
“I’m prepared to give you the opportunity to make good choices.”
Trial
The court previously heard police raided the house in Linfield Street on November 3 2020 and found 55,655 Etizolam stashed in a hall cupboard, above the former school cleaner’s tumble drier.
The pills – worth around 50p each – were double-bagged in Asda carriers and Michael Torano’s DNA was found on the knots of both bags.
He told jurors he had dipped into the stash he assumed belonged to his father Joseph Torano Snr who was terminally ill with cancer and died around two months after the police raid.
He said he visited his mother’s home to have his washing done.
He admitted the 14 cannabis plants next door were his.
A raid on his flat in Clepington Road at the same time uncovered more drug dealing paraphernalia.
‘No moral compass’
Cocaine worth between £500 and £650, a tick list, two mobile phones with drug dealing references on them and £2100 in cash was found in Joseph Torano Jnr’s bedroom.
His solicitor James Laverty said: “Obviously there is no moral compass in relation to this type of behaviour.
“His immaturity shines through in relation to the community effect of what he was doing.
“It’s rather shameful that he was perhaps brought into a way of life which most people that age would never ever be subjected to or even brought anywhere near.”
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