Dundee man who helped Nottingham-based gang smuggle ultra-pure cocaine is jailed

A mechanic who helped an organised crime gang flood Scotland with cocaine worth more than £100,000 has been jailed.

Douglas Wilkinson, 48, helped the Nottingham-based gang bring ultra-pure cocaine north of the border and was caught with almost a quarter of a kilo of the drug at his home in Stobswell.

Wilkinson had racked up drug debts and became involved with the gang to pay off what he owed and fund his addict daughter.

At Perth Sheriff Court, Wilkinson was jailed for nearly four years after he admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine at Perth Railway Station on November 27 last year. He also admitted being concerned in the supply of amphetamine in Dalkeith Road, Dundee, on the same date. The amphetamine was valued at £1,730.

Sheriff William Wood told him: “You have pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of a Class A drug. The quantity involved was substantial. If re-cut and sold commercially it could generate in excess of £100,000. It was of a higher than normal purity, so likely to be re-cut for sale.

“Bearing in mind that the availability of Class A drugs is a scourge on society which encourages crime, wrecks families and ruins lives, only a substantial custodial sentence is appropriate.

“I also take into account that it was connected to serious, organised crime.”

Fiscal depute Stewart Duncan told the court police stopped Wilkinson at Perth Station after a tip-off.

Wilkinson told officers: “I have drugs in my hoodie pocket. I was due somebody money so it was to pay them off.”

Officers found drugs on Wilkinson along with items of paraphernalia and a return train ticket between Nottingham and Perth. They searched his home in Dalkeith Road and found bags of cocaine of around 85% purity worth a total of £102,050.

Wilkinson’s solicitor Anika Jethwa said her client “bitterly regretted his involvement in drug dealing and had lost his job as a result of his conviction.

He was jailed for 45 months.