Glasgow cocaine ring: five men jailed over £4m drugs and cash conspiracy
Five men have been sentenced to four-and-a-half years each after police dismantled a £4m cocaine and money laundering operation in Glasgow.
Glasgow cocaine ring smashed: five jailed over £4m drugs and cash operation
Five men have been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison after police dismantled a £4m cocaine and money laundering ring in Glasgow, bbc.co.uk reports.
Ian McIntyre, 31, Kieran Doherty, 30, Calum McKelvie, 30, Jack Sanderson, 34, and Martin Tracey, 31, all admitted involvement in serious organised crime carried out between 2023 and 2024. The sentences were handed down at the High Court in Glasgow by Judge Lord Arthurson, who declined to differentiate between the five defendants.
"You were all plainly involved in this for the money — for financial gain," the judge told the group. "You ran the same risk of detection for which you will all pay the appropriate price."
Lord Arthurson described the trafficking as "substantial" over a sustained period, and said the sums of cash and drugs recovered ran into the millions. He added: "This was not a victimless crime — it was far from it."
Operation Silhouette
The prosecution formed part of a wider covert policing effort. Prosecutor Derick Nelson told the court the indictment was "one of several emanating from a large scale covert police operation" targeting a network of linked individuals engaged in drug supply and cash laundering.
Detectives uncovered a drugs factory set up inside a bedroom of a flat in Lambhill, in the north of Glasgow. Officers who entered the property in May 2024 immediately detected a "strong smell of chemicals." Inside the bedroom, three men were found wearing gloves and industrial respirators. The windows had been blacked out, the floor covered with a blue tarpaulin, and in open view were blocks of white powder alongside a microwave, an oven, a hydraulic press and large industrial fans.
Nelson told the court the bedroom had been "set up as a factory for processing cocaine," involving a chemical process for "washing" the powder. Various quantities of the drug were recovered from the flat, some testing at 80% purity, with a combined potential street value of £1.47m. Sanderson and Tracey were among those found at the scene.
A safe house — then the home of Doherty in Gartcosh, Lanarkshire — was used to store large amounts of cash. McIntyre was observed attending the property regularly, often carrying a weighted bag. Nelson said: "Surveillance showed him either receiving bags or delivering them to others, who were later found in possession of large amounts of cash."
McKelvie, Sanderson and Tracey operated as couriers alongside a broader network.
Cash seizures and drug hauls
The court heard details of a series of cash handovers. In May and June 2023, separate transfers of £100,000, £67,020 and £51,110 in dirty money took place. McIntyre later met a criminal associate at a café in Glasgow's west end, where the two were overheard by police discussing "not doubling the money, but trebling it."
On 8 March 2024, detectives received intelligence that a large sum of cash had been passed to the driver of a silver Vauxhall Corsa travelling southbound on the M74. The vehicle was stopped and £199,530 was found inside. The driver told police he had been instructed to deliver the cash to a phone shop in Manchester and was to be paid £950 for the journey.
Further seizures followed. Officers found £207,270 taped up in bags in the boot of a car stopped near Longforgan in Perth and Kinross. An additional £101,000 was recovered from a flat in Whiteinch, Glasgow, and £51,000 was seized from a man stopped at a city centre hotel.
On the drugs side, 15 blocks of cocaine with a potential value of £1.5m were found in a car stopped near Dundee in September 2023. "Each package had a handwritten image of a smiling face and the letter 'M' marked on it," Nelson said. A further consignment worth approximately £290,000 was discovered in a vehicle fitted with a secret compartment.
Dawn raids
Dawn raids were carried out at 13 addresses linked to the network on 29 November 2024 as part of Operation Silhouette, in what investigators described as a "day of action."
Mitigation
Defence counsel for each of the five men offered statements of remorse to the court. John Scullion KC, representing McIntyre of Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, said his client had been a promising footballer before being injured in a road accident and later working as a personal trainer. "Over the passage of time, he regrets this offence and he feels shame for that involvement due to the impact on the community, his partner, and daughter," Scullion told the court.
Paul Nelson KC, representing Doherty of Parkhead, Glasgow, said his client "has expressed remorse" and "realises that it is he and not anyone else that made these decisions."
Mark Mohammed, representing McKelvie of Barrhead, Renfrewshire, said his client "acted as a courier on the direction of another" and "played a limited role in these matters."
Tony Graham KC, representing Sanderson of Renfrew, said there was nothing to suggest his client was "a principal profiteer" and that Sanderson "intends to move on."
Source: The Telegraph