Heroin dealer told to hand over £55,000

A HEROIN trafficker has been ordered to hand over more than £55,000 in crime profits.

Shaun McKinnon, 24, was part of a drugs gang jailed for a total of almost 24 years earlier this year after an undercover police operation.

McKinnon, of Castlebrae Glebe, Edinburgh, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years' imprisonment after admitting being concerned in the supply of heroin last year. During a police operation, dubbed Operation Venom, last year, cocaine and heroin worth more than 200,000 on the streets were recovered.

Prosecution authorities raised proceedings against McKinnon to clawback any proceeds of crime.

During a brief hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, a judge was told that a settlement had now been reached in the action.

Advocate depute Barry Divers asked Lord Mackay to record the proceeds of McKinnon's "general criminal conduct" at 156,292 and to make a confiscation order for 55,325.

Mr Divers said the latter figure represented McKinnon's realisable assets. He was given six months to pay the confiscation order.