A police sting on drug couriers took place at a north-east railway station yesterday.
Detectives, along with a sniffer dog and a dog handler, patrolled Aberdeen’s station forecourt and platforms for several hours.
Passengers arriving in the Granite City were met by Constable Brendan Merchant and springer spaniel, Buster, while plain-clothed officers kept an eye out for any suspicious behaviour.
And, while four-year-old Buster seemed good natured, the officers leading the operation sent out a serious message to any one attempting to transport illegal drugs into the north-east.
Detective Sergeant James Callander, of the proactive CID unit, said: “Operation Aspen targets organised crime routes in the north of Scotland, a part of that is targeting the transport routes used to courier the drugs from the south to the north – the train station is one of those.
“We’ve got the drugs dog passively scanning people coming off the trains and we’ll take action should the dog indicate that it’s possible there’s drugs on that person.”
Operation Aspen was launched earlier this year as part of the amalgamation of the north-east divisions.
However, police have been carrying out similar patrols in the region for a number of years.
In 2012, a trafficker at the city station with Kinder Eggs packed with £10,700 worth of heroin stuffed down his pants.
“For us to target a train station it has to be intelligence-led, we can’t go and fish for it,” DS Callander added.
“It used to be Liverpool and Birmingham were your main routes but it’s all over the south now – quite often the trains will meet in Edinburgh or Glasgow so a lot of the time we don’t know where they’re going to come from until they get off the train.
“Scotland-wide it’s easy to tie in with officers and it’s easy to liaise with BTP because they’re based in Aberdeen.
“Police Scotland will carry out disruption tactics like this as often as we can – anybody coming up on the train will be targeted and will be put through the courts.”