A 35-year-old Liverpool drug dealer was remanded in custody yesterday after being caught in a police surveillance operation in Inverness and Elgin.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard yesterday that officers kept watch on the activities of Graham Ball and his former co-accused, Laura Beckwith, during April and May last year.
The court heard they were part of a Liverpool-based organised crime group who recruited people in the Highlands to sell their drugs.
Beckwith directed the associates and Ball was embedded in the area to work with them as deliveries and sales were made.
She was jailed for a year in July for her part in the drugs supply chain.
Ball, of Bellmont Drive, admitted being concerned in the supply of 136g of heroin and had sentence deferred until April 25 for a background report.
The court was told police observed Ball hide a bag containing £2,000 of heroin in woodland near Birchwood Road in Elgin on April 25, 2016.
Surveillance of him and his associates continued and on May 10, 2016 he was picked up from Inverness railway station and taken to an address in the city.
Ball was then driven to Fairfield Road where he walked to the Caledonian Canal footpath.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart said he returned to the vehicle which was stopped and searched.
Scales, a mobile phone, and heroin worth £11,600 were eventually recovered, he added.