A man has been jailed after being stopped on the A90 bringing thousands of pounds worth of cocaine and heroin into the north-east.
Fabian Thomas, 30, was a passenger in a car stopped on the A90 near Laurencekirk and was found with a bumbag containing drugs worth more than £7,000.
He appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court via a video link from HMP Grampian in connection with the matter.
Fiscal depute Felicity Merson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court officers were acting on intelligence received when they stopped the vehicle near the junction of the A90 for Castleton Farm, Laurencekirk.
She said: “Around 9am on March 3 2016 police in an unmarked car saw the vehicle travelling north on the A90.
“A marked car was deployed and activated its blue lights.”
Mrs Merson said the vehicle came to a stop and Thomas was found to be a rear seat passenger and a Nike bumbag was discovered in the footwell where he had been sitting containing a number of packages.
It contained heroin valued at £2,630 and cocaine worth £4,630.
The bag also contained a sum of cash totalling around £265.
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Mrs Merson added a mobile phone seized by police contained messages revealing Thomas had been concerned in the supply of drugs for a number of weeks between February 16 and March 3 2016.
Thomas, described in court papers as a prisoner of HMP Grampian, previously pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine and heroin, and also to failing to appear at court on a previous occasion.
Defence agent Ross Taggart told the court his client, a father of five, had been caught “red-handed” and was currently serving a sentence of imprisonment for another matter.
He added: “He’s anxious to return to his family, however he accepts, with the seriousness of these charges, that a custodial sentence is inevitable.”
Mr Taggart said: “The social work report does state he knew exactly what he was doing, transporting drugs, and he takes full responsibility for that and makes no excuses.”
Sheriff Philip Mann, addressing Thomas directly, said: “These are serious offences which in my view amply merit a custodial sentence.
“I’m dealing not with a single day but with a period of close to a month.”
He ordered Thomas to be jailed for 28 months and two weeks.
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