A drug courier who was supplying the illicit trade in Aberdeen has been jailed for 18 months after he was apprehended in Perthshire.
Kieran Teasdale was on a run between his home city of Bradford and the north east of Scotland with a stash of cannabis weighing-in at almost 2,000 grammes.
It would have been worth as much as £29,000 when distributed to Aberdeen’s dealers and broken down into street deals.
The 23-year-old’s accomplice, Jacob Simpson, has already begun a 19-month prison sentence for his part in the operation.
Teasdale has joined him behind bars after he was jailed for 18 months following an appearance at Perth Sheriff Court.
The two men had been banned from entering Scotland unless to attend a court hearing after being stopped on the M90 at Broxden, on the outskirts of Perth, on April 7 last year.
Simpson, who was driving, was pulled over by police officers carrying out routine vehicle checks after they spotted he had failed to display an excise licence.
The 26-year-old leaped from the driver’s seat and climbed into the rear of the police vehicle in a forlorn effort to stave-off any further investigations.
While he was questioned by one officer, a colleague went to speak to Teasdale, who had remained in the vehicle’s passenger seat.
The court heard the officer had his senses assaulted by the overpowering smell of cannabis as the trafficker rolled down the window to speak to him.
He admitted there were drugs within the vehicle and handed over a small bag of herbal matter but a larger package was recovered by the officer from the passenger-side foot-well. In total, the drugs weighed 1,972 grammes.
Both Simpson and Teasdale, of Bradford, pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of cannabis on the M90 while on a journey between Bradford and Aberdeen in April last year.
Teasdale’s solicitor Paul Ralph, said: “He began to use cannabis and fell into debt. This endeavour was then suggested to him and he went along with it, starting him on a path that has brought him to court.”
Sheriff William Wood told Teasdale: “I cannot ignore the amount of cannabis you were assisting in transporting and bringing into circulation.
“You were not hoodwinked into this. You went into it willingly.”
