A man who stashed 400 cannabis-laced “Dairy Milk” bars in a shipping container at a Fife business park has been jailed.
The fake brand chocolates, which were infused with THC and had a cartoon cannabis leaf on their logo, were among a wider £21,500 stockpile of drugs found at the Dalgety Bay lock-up.
Jonathan Haughian was convicted by jury at Dunfermline Sheriff Court of being concerned in the supply of cannabis, cocaine, Etizolam and THC – the psychoactive compound in marijuana.
The drugs were found at the town’s business centre, where the cargo box was stored, and other locations in Dunfermline between April 2019 and May 2020.
Cannabis edibles
Detective Sergeant Kevin Plank told jurors he estimated the value of the cannabis-infused chocolate bars to be £8,060 but pointed out they could have fetched up to £12,000.
A bag containing 1.7kg of cannabis was also found inside the shipping container, which he said would fetch between £12,200 and £19,480 depending on how it was sold.
About 1,030 class C Etizolam tablets were also found.
DS Plank gave an overall lower estimate of £21,500 for drugs found in the shipping container.
He also described the chocolate bars as a “typical homemade product” and said the USA is “well ahead in relation to cannabis edible products”.
He said people can buy pre-made bags over the internet and put a homemade product in them to make it as “legitimate-looking” as possible.
Haughian, 31, had denied all four charges and blamed his father for the drugs stash.
He appeared in the dock for sentencing on Friday.
‘Mid-level dealer’
Sheriff Charles Macnair told Haughian: “There was a significant quantity of cannabis, not only herbal but also in the form of chocolate bars.
“In my view the evidence pointed to you being a mid-level dealer”.
Prior to being sentenced, Haughian admitted a separate offence of assaulting a man by reaching into his car and striking him in Rosyth’s Tyrwhitt Place in January 2021.
The court heard he did this because he believed his victim was trying to sell drugs to his cousin’s son.
Sheriff Macnair said: “Drugs cases cause considerable harm within the community and in relation to the other charge, you have decided to take the law in to your own hands because you thought, rightly or wrongly, someone was selling drugs, which is precisely what you were doing”.
The sheriff sentenced Haughian to three years in prison for the drugs offences and another 186 days for the assault, backdated to February 9.
Defence lawyer Alistair Burleigh said his client had developed a drug problem at the time of his offending.
The solicitor suggested his father and some of siblings were among those influences and Haughian found himself “drawn into some issues they had”.
Mr Burleigh said his client is a changed person to the one he was two or three years ago.
He has since moved away from negative influences to the Highlands and found work in tourism.
Fuel theft
Haughian, formerly of Lochgelly but now of Drumnadrochit in the Highlands, told the trial he had never been at the shipping container but knew his father had it.
Haughian admitted having “smoked a joint” a number of years ago but said he “never touched any hard drugs or anything like that”.
He claimed he had no knowledge of the drugs seized by police from the container.
Haughian, a former labourer at Rosyth docks and nightclub bouncer in Dunfermline, claimed he had no knowledge of the drugs seized by police from the container.
Haughian’s 37-year-old brother, Joseph, from Edinburgh, also appeared in court on Friday alongside his sibling to admit a charge of stealing about £52 worth of fuel from a Shell filling station in Rosyth‘s Admiralty Road in December 2020.
Sheriff Macnair ordered him to pay compensation for the theft.
