Heroin and cocaine gang jailed total of 60 years

SEVEN members of a criminal gang that made up to £200 million flooding the west of Scotland with cocaine and heroin have been jailed for more than 60 years.

The men, aged 25 to 58, were part of a 30-strong network responsible for trafficking the drugs from Merseyside.

The criminals from the Glasgow area were snared by Scotland’s organised crime police unit last year and handed over to their counterparts in Liverpool, who headed the investigation known as Operation Blenheim.

The seven were convicted of conspiracy to supply class A drugs and sentenced to a total of 60 years and eight months at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.

Titan, north-west England’s organised crime unit, said the tough punishment handed down by judge David Aubrey, QC, should send a warning to other criminal gangs.

Head of operations Detective Superintendent Jason Hudson said: “This gang flooded Glasgow and other towns in west Scotland with highly-addictive class A drugs, causing untold damage in those communities.”

Titan said it recorded 101 drug-ferrying trips across the Border in March-October 2012.

Father and son Christopher Welsh snr, 55, and Christopher Welsh jnr , 34, from Liverpool, masterminded the plot and have been jailed for 15 years and four months and 16 years and eight months respectively, Titan said.

Detective Superintendent Andy Gunn, from Police Scotland’s Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit, said: “Let this be a warning to those involved in serious and organised crime in Scotland that this will not be tolerated.”

The Scots jailed were Martin Feeley, 28, Michael Cook, 28, John O’Donnell, 25, Paul Coch-rane, 25, and Gary Curran, 45, all of Glasgow; and Terence Mooney, 58, and Thomas Wallace, 45, both of Greenock. An eighth man, Alexander Caldwell, 24 of Glasgow, is still to be sentenced.