A “bit player” who was snared by police in a major Highland drugs trafficking operation was jailed for five years today.
Jason Mackay was found to have provided help by directing a courier who was delivering a batch of cocaine worth up to £300,000 on the streets.
Mackay, 37, contacted the man transporting the Class A drugs, including telling him: “Message me when you are 10 minutes away.”
A judge told Mackay at the High Court in Edinburgh: “Drugs of this nature cause untold misery in society.”
Lord Summers said that Mackay’s previous offending spanned almost two decades and included a conviction for trafficking in Class A drugs.
Surveillance operation targeted organised crime gang
The judge jailed him for four and a half years for his latest drugs crime and sentenced him to a further six months’ imprisonment for failing to appear at an earlier court hearing.
Mackay earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine on September 23 in 2020 at Coul Park, Coulhill Road and Novar Road, in Alness, Ross and Cromarty, the A9 road at Dalmagarry and elsewhere.
He also pled guilty to failing to appear at a sitting of the High Court in Inverness on November 11 last year.
The court heard that police had launched a surveillance operation targeting an organised crime gang involved in drugs supply in the Highlands and in September 2020 stopped a vehicle transporting cocaine. A mobile phone was recovered containing messages between the courier and Mackay.
The court heard there was no information to indicate that Mackay was aware of the type or value of the drugs involved.
‘Habitual offender’
Defence solicitor advocate Marco Guarino previously told the court that Mackay was “a bit player” whose limited involvement in the offence occurred on a single day.
Mr Guarino said today: “He was never part of this organised crime group. He was a habitual offender at a low level and someone with an alcohol and drug dependency.”
“The only sliver of evidence in support of any crime against him was the evidence of the texts sent on one day,” he told the court.
Mr Guarino said: “I think it is fair to say his upbringing was utterly chaotic.” He said Mackay, a prisoner, was currently serving a jail sentence but was now drug free.
Mackay watched the sentencing proceedings via a TV link to prison.