Five dealers go down

Published 16 Jun 2010 17:00

FIVE drug dealers - described as "lieutenants" in a major organised crime gang - have been locked up for a total of more than 11 years.

Colin Murray, 23, Kelly Cameron, 32, James Currie, 33, Gerard McWhirter, 33, and Michael McKell, 38, are all beginning jail sentences this week after being busted in high profile drug raids earlier this year.

The five were all arrested during Operation Matiz which saw 14 addresses raided simultaneously across Clydebank on March 26.

The busts aimed to put a serious dent in the town's heroin network and police this week said it had been a great result for them and the people of the town.

Operation Matiz - which featured on the front page of the Post - was the biggest of its kind to ever have taken place in Clydebank and police were "targeting the people causing most harm to the community".

Lawyers for the five this week tried to argue that they were small time dealers driven to crime to feed their own habits, but police were having none of it, insisting they were an important part of the organised crime network profiting from dealing in misery.

Dumbarton Sheriff Court heard how undercover police officers posing as drug users made contact with all five.

Colin Murray from Dumbarton Road, Dalmuir, appeared at court on Friday June 4.

He pled guilty to dealing heroin between March 3 and March 8 this year, at various locations including in Dalmuir Park, Dunn Street, Duntocher, and Singer Street, Dalmuir.

He also admitted supplying heroin to an undercover officer in Dalmuir Park on March 3 and was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison.

Cameron, Currie, McWhirter and McKell all appeared on Tuesday June 8.

Cameron supplied two £10 bags of heroin to an undercover officer through her letter box in February this year.

Sheriff Simon Fraser sentenced Cameron, of Flat 7, 4 Ottawa Crescent, Dalmuir, to four months in prison.

McWhirter supplied the undercover officers with £90 of heroin in the form of nine £10 bags.

He was involved in dealing in various locations during February including Lennox Place, Dalmuir, North Elgin Street, Whitecrook, and Kilbowie Road near to Crown Avenue

Sheriff Fraser sentenced McWhirter, whose address was given as Barlinnie Prison, to three years behind bars.

McKell - who has previous convictions for drug dealing - supplied the largest amount of drugs to the undercover officers.

On February 19 he supplied them with £50 worth of the drug and on February 23 gave them £100 worth.

Due to his previous conviction for drug dealing Sheriff Fraser sentenced McKell, whose address was given as Greenock Prison, to three years and eight months in prison.

Currie was contacted on four occasions - three of them on consecutive days in February this year - by undercover officers and he readily supplied them with eight £10 deals of heroin.

His deals took place in various locations including Lennox Place, Dalmuir, and at his home in Dunswin Court, Dalmuir.

Sheriff Simon Fraser sentenced Currie, whose address was given as Greenock Prison, to two years and seven-and-a-half months.

Chief Inspector Ian Wallace, from Clydebank police said: "These are significant sentences handed down to individuals who were at the centre of the illegal drugs trade in Clydebank. Having these individuals behind bars will disrupt those organised criminals who orchestrate the sale of heroin and other controlled substances in our communities."

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This article appeared in Clydebank Post 16 Jun 10

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