Marmion brother facing jail as drug gang snared

Shaun McKinnon was part of the eight-strong gang supplying heroin and cocaine who were targeted by months of surveillance as part of Operation Venom.

The 23-year-old was tracked by officers driving from the Capital to Manchester to pick up a supply of heroin with a street value of nearly 50,000.

The operation by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency caught gang members red-handed with a further 130,000 of heroin and cocaine over three months last year.

At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, McKinnon and five other men pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of drugs and now face sentencing next month. Two other gang members have already been jailed.

Prosecutors have also applied to seize assets belonging to McKinnon, of Castlebrae Glebe, Craigmillar, under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

McKinnon was in The Marmion bar when his brother, Alex, 32, was blasted to death with a shotgun in April 2006, while their brother-in-law, James Hendry, then 27, was wounded.

In a later court case, McKinnon was cleared of the attempted murder of Jamie Bain, the hitman chased from the pub after carrying out the shooting, who was savagely beaten by a mob outside.

Also pleading guilty to trafficking in heroin or cocaine yesterday were Paul Ward, 29, of Lochend Road, Kevin Jones, 43, of Upper Craigour, Moredun, Duncan McDonald, 29, of Ferniehill Drive, Jamie Sweeney, 24, of Greenend Gardens, Gilmerton, and Nicholas Brown, 37, of Mansfield, East Calder.

The court heard that the gang was responsible for supplying heroin and cocaine across the central belt of Scotland.

Undercover officers tailed McKinnon and Ward to the Manchester area on 18 February last year, where they picked up a carrier bag filled with 47,000 worth of heroin. The pair passed it to McDonald to be driven back to Scotland and he was pulled over and arrested in Lockerbie.

A later raid on a house in Rosewell, Midlothian, seized cocaine with a street value of 100,000. Police also found a metal press there and other equipment for turning cocaine into blocks.

In another surveillance operation, McKinnon was seen meeting with Sweeney and Brown last 26 May. Officers later stopped Sweeney and Brown in a car and found heroin worth more than 10,000.

McKinnon and Ward were also trailed from Dalkeith to the petrol station in Old Dalkeith Road in Edinburgh last 29 May where heroin worth 22,000 was handed to Jones.

Officers swooped on the petrol station and arrested McKinnon, Ward and Jones, bringing Operation Venom to a close.

Fellow gang member Malcolm Aitchison, 42, of Victoria Street, Rosewell, was jailed for four years and eight months last October after being caught with 100,000 of cocaine at the car park of a McDonald's restaurant on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Judge Lord Kinclaven remanded the men in custody until next month for background reports.

Another of McKinnon's brothers, Colin, was jailed for three years in January 2008 after being caught selling drugs to an undercover police officer.