A drugslord who sent children to other cities in a London crime enterprise has admitted bringing his dealing to Aberdeen.
Londoner Dean Alford was jailed for 11 years in 2016 after being convicted of dealing cocaine.
As part of that, the now 39-year-old recruited, groomed and trafficked six victims aged 14 to 19 to deliver drugs from the English capital to drug dens in Portsmouth.
The process is known as ‘county lines’ – when gangsters send predominantly young people away from their hometown to other areas of the country to commit crime.
His drugs brand was called ‘Duffy’
Alford became the first person ever to be given a slavery and trafficking prevention order for orchestrating a county lines offence, along with two other gangmates.
The criminal would take orders for drugs from customers by phone under his made-up brand known as ‘Duffy’ and get underlings to deliver the drugs and collect the profit.
Alford would then make children deposit their earnings, which could be as much as £2,000 a day.
Under the terms of that sentence, he would have been entitled to leave prison around 2021 on good behaviour and be on licence until at least 2027.
He was expected to keep out of trouble – but instead he came to the north-east and continued his offending.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard earlier today how Alford was using two Aberdeen flats – one in Granton Place and the other in Esslemont Avenue Aberdeen – when police raided them on June 18 last year.
Officers discovered cocaine and cash worth more than £40,000.
At the hearing, Alford and his co-accused Rory Morgan, 31, admitted being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug.
Two Aberdeen flats
Advocate depute Brian Gill KC told the court that the accused rented and frequented the two properties.
The prosecutor said: “On June 18 2024 police had received intelligence that an organised crime group, including Alford, dealing in drugs in the Aberdeen area was using the two flats.”
When officers went to the Esslemont Avenue flat they detained Alford and saw Morgan run to a bathroom and try to flush items down a toilet.
They went to the second flat in Granton Place and found no one in but discovered drugs at the address.
DNA from Alford, a prisoner at HMP Grampian, was found on packaging containing drugs.
Cash in excess of £9,000 was recovered along with cocaine during the seizures.
Mr Gill said he was also subject to a slavery and trafficking prevention order imposed on following conviction for human trafficking offences.
The judge, Lord Summers, deferred sentence on the pair for background reports until March 31 at the High Court in Glasgow.
He remanded Morgan, of Croydon, London, in custody after rejecting a defence plea to continue his bail.
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