£40m cocaine smugglers caught after courier turns supergrass

A DRUGS gang responsible for smuggling up to £40 million worth of cocaine into the UK was caught after a courier turned supergrass.

The gang was importing massive amounts of cocaine from Spain into Glasgow, Prestwick and Newcastle airports through a Colombian connection between 2007 to 2009. The drugs were then distributed in the Glasgow area.

The ringleaders were Keith Blenkinsop and Lindsay Harkins, who sewed the cocaine into suitcases in Barcelona and used couriers to bring it into the UK.

Over a two-year period the gang flew out to Spain with suitcases full of euros and came back with two kilos of cocaine at a time. The route was discovered when one of the gang’s couriers, David Harbinson, was caught with some counterfeit £20 notes and blurted out details of the drugs operation to police who questioned him.

Yesterday, at the High Court in Glasgow, Blenkinsop, 43, from Annan, Harkins, 44, from Helensburgh, Andrew Burns, 56, from Helensburgh, Robert Dalrymple, 43, from Gretna, and James Elvin, 35, from Clydebank, were all convicted of being concerned in the supply of cocaine in Scotland, England, and Spain.

The court heard that despite the massive size of their operation, the gang managed to remain completely under the radar of the UK’s drug enforcement agencies. The gang was snared because a teller in a Marks & Spencer bureau de change in Carlisle noticed counterfeit notes among a bundle of Sterling that Harbinson wanted to change into euros.

Harbinson turned supergrass and gave evidence which put his former associates behind bars. He has now been placed on a witness-protection programme.

He told advocate depute Iain McSporran, prosecuting, that the gang had a direct connection to Colombian drug barons. Harbinson said that Blenkinsop and Harkins masterminded the operation and the other accused were couriers paid to take euros to Spain and bring back drugs.

The gang exchanged so much Sterling into euros that Blenkinsop’s local post office won an award for the amount of currency it sold.

The jury was told they sourced their cocaine from Colombians based in Barcelona and transferred them to Harkins’ house in Barcelona.

Police found a 50-tonne hydraulic press in Harkins’ former Helensburgh home, along with traces of cocaine and cutting agents for the drug.

When Blenkinsop’s house in Annan was searched, 12 kilos of cannabis resin were found in a holdall in the attic.

Father-of-two Harbinson, 41, from Annan, said that he would fly out to Barcelona with euros in his suitcase and travel back to Newcastle with two kilos of cocaine. He said that he was originally approached to become a courier by his friend of 20 years Blenkinsop and then he was also spoken to by Harkins.

He said the offer was made while all three were in Barcelona in 2008 at the time Celtic were playing Villa Real.

All accused claimed that Harbinson was a liar and a self-confessed cocaine addict and said that no-one would have used him as a drugs courier.

Blenkinsop and Harkins were also convicted of being involved in the supply of amphetamines.

All five will be sentenced next month.