A pair of Tayside men snared in a surveillance operation that led to the recovery of almost £25,000 worth of heroin have been jailed for a total of seven years.
Police swooped on a car on the A90 between Forfar and Dundee having earlier watched David Reidie and David Hosie play their part in a deal involving almost 250 grammes of the Class A drug and more than £4,000 in cash.
At Forfar Sheriff Court on Thursday, Sheriff Kevin Veal told the pair lengthy custodial sentences were the only possible sentence for being involved with such a large quantity of drugs.
Reidie (28), of Glenmoy Terrace, Forfar, had previously admitted an indictment alleging being concerned in the supplying of heroin at Morrisons car park, Caird Park, Dundee, and the A90 Dundee to Forfar road at Happas on May 10 last year.
Hosie (29), of Milnbank Road, Dundee, admitted the supply of controlled drugs at the Morrisons car park in Dundee.
The court earlier heard the supermarket car park off Dundee’s Forfar Road became the focus of a surveillance operation by drugs squad officers involved in what was named Operation Damsel, following a tip-off that the accused were to receive heroin from the Liverpool area.
Police saw Reidie approach a silver Vauxhaull Vectra taxi, from which Hosie emerged, spoke to his co-accused, handed him money and then left.
Some time later, police saw Reidie run to a football pitch at Caird Park where he received a package from a Liverpudlian man and a female.
On returning to Morrisons, he placed the package under the passenger seat of his car and drove back to Forfar.
Police swooped on the car as it reached Happas, north of Dundee.
Monitored text messages included one that said: ”Coppers are all over the street.”
Sheriff Veal said the Crown narrative in the case ”bore eloquent witness to the careful surveillance exercise that had been put in place by the police”.
He added: ”With the recovery of 248.8 grammes of heroin, with a value of £4,500-£6,000 on the one hand, and a maximum figure of £24,840 on the other, the care taken in that surveillance exercise was more than justified.”
Reidie’s agent, Gary Foulis, said his client recognised the seriousness of the offence after being offered a few hundred pounds to pick up the package.
”He was under a considerable amount of pressure at the time of this offence, his partner was heavily pregnant and he rather foolishly took part in this enterprise.”
Hosie’s agent, Theo Findlay, said his client’s position was that he was essentially a ”runner” and handed over £500, not the entire £4,200 recovered by police. But he said his client accepted that in doing so he was involved in the wider offence.
”He was a man in difficulties for a number of years and his record reflects that,” added Mr Findlay.
Sentencing the pair, Sheriff Veal said: ”It was quite clear that this was an operation planned well in advance. The activities of the accused, allied to the obvious and careful preparation of what was in place in connection with the supply of a significant quantity of heroin, both in terms of weight and potential value, dictate that a prison sentence can be the only possible disposal in this case.”
He said he could also not ignore Reidie’s 15 previous convictions, and the 53 on the ”altogether worse” record of his co-accused.
He jailed Reidie for 39 months, discounted from 51 in light of his guilty plea, and Hosie for 45 months, discounted from 57 months.
A third accused in the case, Ashley Hosie (31), of Kingsway East, Dundee, is due to be sentenced on June 14 following the preparation of reports having admitted to being in possession of heroin with intent to supply it to others on the same date.