Property developer jailed with gang after detectives swoop on drugs deal

Six men including a wealthy businessman and a convicted murderer have been jailed for a total of almost 26 years after they were snared in a police drugs swoop.

A trial at the High Court in Edinburgh heard how heroin with a street value of more than 118,000 and 19,000 cash was seized as a result of Operation Archangel.

Tayside Police targeted Andrew Sellars, 32, in an undercover operation and also caught property developer Stephen Donald, 54, labourer George Brodie, 40, Joseph Torano, 31, Gary Burgess, 44, and Joseph Doherty, 41.

Sellars and Doherty admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin while the other men were found guilty after trial.

Brodie was found guilty in 1991 of murdering an army sergeant by stabbing him outside a nightclub in Coatbridge. The victim had been on leave and was on a stag night.

Donald, who had interests in various companies in Tayside, had denied being "a fixer" for a 24,000 heroin transaction but was convicted by a jury. He received a five-year sentence.

Brodie was also involved, and it was his second drugs trafficking offence since being freed under a life sentence for stabbing the soldier to death. He was given six years.

The pair were arrested as part of Tayside Police's Operation Archangel in 2009.

The main target of the investigation was Sellars, of Broughty Ferry. He was seen by surveillance officers with another man, Torano, standing at the boot of a car in Dundee.

Torano took a black bag and transferred it to another vehicle, a Vauxhall Corsa.

The car, driven by Burgess, was followed to Glasgow, and into a car park at the Mail Coach public house, Hamilton Road.

A taxi arrived and the passenger, Docherty, handed over a carrier bag and received the black bag, and returned to the taxi.

Police moved in and blocked the two vehicles. Docherty was still clutching the black bag, which was found to contain 19,010 in cash.

The carrier bag in the Corsa contained two socks which held 35 individual small parcels. In each was about an ounce of heroin, and the total possible street value of the drugs was 94,140.

Sellars was detained about three weeks later after he and Brodie, of Blairgowrie, Perthshire, met in a lay-by on the A923 Dundee-Coupar Angus road.

Police recovered heroin worth up to 24,350, and mobile phones revealing text messages which they believed showed Donald, of Charleston, near Forfar, had arranged the meeting. Donald denied being involved and said the only reason for his having met Sellars earlier was to discuss the possible sale of a car.However, a jury found him guilty of being concerned in the supplying of heroin. Brodie was convicted of a similar charge, as were Torano and Burgess, both of Dundee. Sellars and Docherty, of Glasgow, admitted their roles.

The trial heard that Donald was a successful businessman whose interests ranged from a central heating firm to a children's nursery. He also did much work for and contributed to children's charities.

His counsel, Mark Stewart, QC, told the court: "It is unusual to find someone like him before the court charged in this way."

Donald accepted the jury's verdict, said Mr Stewart, but maintained it was wrong and that he was innocent. He knew he faced a jail sentence but, for him, there would be an additional penalty.

"He will be released and returned to the business world, and in that world he will have the difficulties and problems this conviction carries with it. He will be viewed in an entirely different way," said Mr Stewart.

Sarah Livingstone, for Brodie, said he maintained that, in the latest case, he had been wrongfully convicted. His licence had been revoked and he was recalled to custody.

Lord Doherty said the jury had accepted that Donald played a significant role, and the sentence he received also had to be significant - five years. Given Brodie's record, he would receive six years.

The judge told Sellars he had been involved in both deals and would have received seven years but it would be discounted to five years and three months because he had pleaded guilty.

The other sentences were: Torano, four years and six months; Burgess, three years and six months; and Docherty, two years and four months.