5 members of cocaine dealing gang are jailed

Police halted the lucrative drug dealing operation – which operated in the Stirling area – after months of surveillance, including the use of a listening bug.

Six people appeared at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday after admitting to being concerned in the supply of cocaine.

Gang leader Leigh Dobson, 27 – who boasted: “I’m a drug dealer; I make money” – received the largest sentence as he was locked up for eight years.

His 29-year-old brother Ryan was jailed for five-and-a-half years by Judge Lord Bonomy.

Craig Cowie, 23, described as a “taxi driver” in the drug trafficking – was ordered to serve four years behind bars. Keith Fitzwater, 27, was locked up for four and a half years, while Kyle Henderson, 23, was sentenced to three years.

Shanti Maguire, prosecuting, earlier told how Leigh Dobson helped by his brother “directed a cocaine dealing operation” and were responsible for “sourcing and funding” the purchase of drugs. She added Cowie regularly drove both of them around in his dad’s car.

Central Scotland Police then set up Operation Nomad to catch them. Miss Maguire went on: “In a number of instances, conversations were recorded  in Cowie’s car about people  who would supply or buy  cocaine.

“On one occasion, on 27 July, last year, Leigh Dobson was heard in a telephone conversation to say: ‘I’m a drug dealer – I make money.’”

The police operation also resulted in significant drug raids outwith the Central Scotland area and were directly linked to crime groups supplying the Dobsons. The total street value of these drugs seized was in excess of £1.5 million.

Christine Wingate, 45, an unemployed mum used by the gang to store drugs – was the only one spared jail after she was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.