A drug trafficker caught with high purity cocaine worth more than £120,000 sobbed as he was jailed for 40 months.
Police recovered nearly a kilo of the drug during a raid at the home of satellite engineer Brett Ewen, 32, at his home in Aberdeen.
They also found a press in a shed in the rear garden of the Rosehill Avenue property and signs that Ewen may have been adulterating the drug to a lower level of purity.
Ewen admitted being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug on June 3 last year, when he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Judge Lord Young told Ewen at the sentencing: “I accept that your previous convictions are less serious and non-analogous however given the weight and purity of the drugs as significant custodial sentence is inevitable.”
Drug dealer cried in dock
Ewen burst into tears as he was led into the cells by security staff.
Advocate depute Christopher MacIntosh earlier told the court that although Ewen has previous convictions, they were not for similar offences.
The prosecutor said that based on intelligence, police secured a search warrant which was enforced at Ewen’s address on June 3 last year.
In a bedroom they recovered a bag containing four packages of cocaine, each weighing about a quarter of a kilo. The drugs haul was valued at £123,000.
The cocaine was between 56 and 70 per cent pure which was regarded as high by police drugs experts.
A treatment for parasitic worms had been used as an adulterant with it.
Defence counsel David Moggach said: “He said he was spoken into allowing his house to be used to store drugs in the full knowledge it was drugs for onward supply.
“I do not know the friendship he sought from this person as there was no financial gain.
“Once he was apprehended, he had time to think about this and he has remorse and regret at committing the offence.”
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