Cocaine gang sent to prison for 43 years

THE two leaders of a £40 million cocaine gang who were caught after a courier turned supergrass have been jailed for 12 and ten years.

Keith Blenkinsop, 43, and Lindsay Harkins, 44, masterminded the smuggling of huge amounts of cocaine from Spain, and its distribution in the Glasgow area.

A judge told the pair that those who played major roles in class-A drugs operations “must expect to be dealt with severely by the courts”.

Lord Doherty said that Blenkinsop, of Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, would receive a higher prison term than Harkins, of Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, because he had a criminal record which included a four-year sentence in Spain for drug dealing.

Three other members of the gang – Andrew Burns, 56, of Helensburgh; Robert Dalrymple, 43, of Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway; and James Elvin, 35, of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire – acted as couriers and were given sentences of eight years, seven years and six years.

In 2009, David Harbinson, 41, of Annan, was in a Marks & Spencer bureau de change in Carlisle when a teller noticed counterfeits in a bundle of notes he was trying to convert into euros.

Harbinson was detained, and revealed to police that he had been a courier for the gang led by Blenkinsop and Harkins. He became the prosecution’s star witness at a trial last month at the High Court in Glasgow, and has been placed on a witness protection programme.

The trial heard that between 2007 and 2009, two-kilo consignments of cocaine were sourced through Colombian connections in Barcelona, where Harkins lived, and brought into the UK via Glasgow, Prestwick and Newcastle airports. The drugs were carried in suitcases with false bottoms.

Harbinson said he was originally approached to become a courier by Blenkinsop, a friend of 20 years. Like others, he would fly to Barcelona with a suitcase laden with euros and return with cocaine. The gang exchanged so much sterling for euros that Blenkinsop’s local post office won an award for the amount of currency it sold.

The five men had denied being concerned in the supply of cocaine, and branded Harbinson a liar and a self-confessed cocaine addict. However, the jury accepted his evidence and the men were all convicted.

Blenkinsop and Harkins were also found guilty of being involved in the supply of amphetamine, and Blenkinsop alone was convicted of cannabis trafficking.

Lawyers for the five told Lord Doherty at yesterday’s sentencing hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh that the men continued to protest their innocence.