Isaac McKinnon joins siblings in jail after drug offences

A BROTHER of the former boxing champ killed in the Marmion pub shooting has been jailed for his role in a major drug trafficking gang – becoming the fourth of his siblings from the notorious family to be imprisoned.

Isaac McKinnon, 34, was sentenced to five years and eight months yesterday for using his Niddrie home to arrange supplies of heroin and cocaine.

The gang, which was directed by its Liverpudlian leader from his jail cell, was snared by a police operation which saw officers recover almost 11kg of Class A drugs worth nearly £850,000.

McKinnon – described by detectives as a “key ally” of the ringleader – is the brother of Alex McKinnon, who died aged 32 after being shot by gunman Jamie Bain at The Marmion Bar in April 2006.

His brothers Colin McKinnon and Thomas McKinnon, then 38 and 31, were jailed for 20 years in March 2011 for the torture of a man who leapt through a window to save his own life.

Another McKinnon brother, Shaun, then 24, was imprisoned for four-and-a-half years in April 2010 as part of an eight-strong gang supplying heroin and cocaine. He was tracked by officers driving from the Capital to Manchester to pick up heroin with a street value of nearly £50,000.

Isaac McKinnon, of Castlebrae Glebe, was sentenced at the High Court in Livingston yesterday after a judge heard details of the gang’s drug-running operation.

The court heard that Paul McIntyre, from Liverpool, ran the criminal outfit from his prison cell, using mobile phones smuggled into Saughton and Addiewell jails.

McIntyre, 28, masterminded three major drugs transactions while serving a 45-month sentence for drug dealing.

Drug consignments were collected from the home of gang member David Hughes, 48, in Huyton, Liverpool, where they had been mixed, weighed and packed.

When police raided Hughes’ house in a joint operation with Merseyside Police, officers found a press, a mould with plates, scales and a 25kg drum of bulking agent, indicating the large scale of the illegal scheme.

McKinnon, meanwhile, was tasked by the gang with arranging for the drugs to be sold from his home. He also controlled courier Stephen Corns, who is currently serving a nearly six-year sentence for drug supply.

McIntyre was sentenced to nine years and six months while Hughes was given eight years. Another gang member Scott Gardner, 29, was caught by police with heroin with a street value of £175,000 and jailed for five years yesterday.

Passing sentence on all four men yesterday, Lord Boyd commended the “excellent” joint operation by Lothian and Borders Police, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the Scottish Prison Service.

So far, 26 people have been arrested for drugs offences as part of Operation Laurel, with 12 now serving prison terms of more than 52 years.

A Scottish Prison Service spokeswoman said: “The presence of drugs and other contraband in our prisons is a serious problem. It is therefore gratifying that joint partnership working of this kind has achieved such positive results.”