A Fife man who collected a haul of cocaine worth up to £600,000 on the streets was detained yesterday.
Gavin Kirkcaldy picked up the high purity batch of Class A drugs from a Range Rover at a pub car park as undercover police officers watched.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard the driver of the 4X4 was linked to a crime gang in the north-west of England.
Police detained Kirkcaldy as he walked away from the rendezvous carrying a rucksack containing the drugs.
Inside the rucksack they found two kilos of 75% pure cocaine, which was capable of being bulked out to produce about 15 kilos of the drug for street sales.
Advocate depute Mark McGuire said: “On November 6 2019 officers of the National Crime Agency and the police service of Scotland were involved in an ongoing operation regarding the suspected trafficking of controlled drugs throughout the United Kingdom.
“That afternoon they followed a particular vehicle, a Range Rover, upon which they had been maintaining surveillance. The driver of the Range Rover was known to have links to an organised crime group.”
The vehicle was driven into the car park of The Kittoch pub at Stewartfield Crescent, East Kilbride, in South Lanarkshire, and parked up while officers watched.
Mr McGuire said that five minutes later Kirkcaldy appeared and opened the front passenger door and appeared to be talking to the driver. He then took the rucksack from the rear of the vehicle and began leaving.”
When 30-year-old Kirkcaldy was cautioned he replied: “It’s in the bag.”
Kirkcaldy was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking after two packages wrapped in brown tape were found in the rucksack. The court heard that each of the two blocks of cocaine could be bought for £40,000 but because of their high purity the drugs could be adulterated to produce about 15 kilos for street deals and could make between £300,000 and £600,000.
Kirkcaldy, of Frederick Street, Dunfermline, admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine on November 6 last year at Stewartfield Crescent, East Kilbride.
The judge, Lord Beckett, deferred sentence on Kirkcaldy, who was on bail, for the preparation of a background report and remanded him in custody.
