A mastermind drug dealer who ran an empire from his jail cell was finally snared – by his dead underling’s mobile phone.
Christopher Smith, 34, of Elgin, was selling cocaine from prison, running a network of lackeys making, cutting and delivering drugs for him – and enforcing debts due to him from addicts.
Smith, who has today been jailed, was even audacious enough to order a footman to send cocaine into his jail as he knew prices were soaring on the inside.
The High Court in Livingston today heard that, despite his relatively young age, Smith might die in prison because he is suffering from a brain tumour.
The kingpin was dealing tens of thousands of pounds worth of drugs – even under the not-so watchful eye of HMP Edinburgh prison guards.
Officials said Smith was intent on “flooding” communities including the John Street area of Nairn, as well as Inverness and Skye, with cocaine and heroin.
Fatal car crash gave police vital clue
But Smith’s illegal enterprise came to an abrupt end when one of his henchmen died in a car crash in Moray, the court was told.
In March 2018, Iain Mckenzie – also known as Jock – was driving a blue Subaru Forester when it crashed into a Volkswagen Golf at Station Cottage, Orton.
The 24-year-old died and his 27-year-old passenger was seriously injured.
Friends and family paid tribute to Mckenzie, calling him a “popular guy” and saying “nobody would bear him a grudge”.
Police found a ‘tick list’ in his car. This is a list of drug customers, including their names, addresses, what they have ordered and how much they owe the gang.
In this case, the total amount was £38,130.
Police managed to move up the drugs tree when they studied Mckenzie’s phone.
‘Send the drugs to jail by recorded delivery’
Detectives found messages that showed Smith was directing Mckenzie to send cocaine worth £2,000 to the prison by recorded delivery.
Smith also provided detailed instructions about how to make varying strengths of crack cocaine for special “customers” within the prison.
In their text messages, the pair discussed cocaine with a value of up to £54,400 – as well as heroin worth up to £10,000.
Police were already onto Smith and his operatives.
For, a week before Mckenzie died, officers got an anonymous call about a suspicious Volkswagen Golf being driven in Skye.
Texts connected Smith with two couriers
Officers stopped and searched the vehicle and found Darren Duncan and Kieran Shand, both of Moray, inside.
They found a small amount of cocaine and then studied both of their mobile phones.
The High Court in Livingston today heard that both phones contained conversations between Smith, Duncan and Shand.
Smith was instructing them via text message from his prison cell on where to deliver cocaine and where drug debts needed to be collected from.
He was telling them to sell cocaine worth £8,250 and to collect £3,000 from an addict who owed a total of £12,000.
House raid provided even more links
Having got their hands on phones from three of Smith’s enforcers, they were building up a picture of his illegal operation.
And then they got another stroke of fortune.
In July 2019, police got a tip-off that Ruth Wardhaugh’s home on Craigton Avenue, Inverness, was operating as a drugs den.
So officers raided the address and recovered heroin worth £1,300, cocaine worth £1,500 and £4,282 in unexplained cash.
They also found a mobile phone – which again included messages from locked-up Smith.
Detectives found messages from Smith about dealing cocaine costing £1,600 per ounce and heroin worth £460 per ounce.
It is understood Wardhaugh died on Christmas Day 2022, aged 55, after a long-fought illness.
Prison cell search revealed major cocaine ring
With enough evidence in hand, police searched Smith’s prison cell in November 2019 and recovered several phones.
Messages from the devices linked Smith to drug-related incidents in Moray, Inverness and Skye between March 2018 and November 2018.
Throughout that period, Smith was ordering underlings to sell drugs and collect debts.
The messages detailed drugs and drug debts totalling around £100,000.
Sentencing Smith today, Judge Lord Mulholland told Smith there was a number of aggravating factors.
Cancer might kill Smith in jail
They included the scale of the drug operation, the fact that drug couriers had been under his control while he was in prison and that the offence involved serious and organised crime.
Lord Mulholland jailed Smith for seven years and five months, less the 153 days he has served on remand, after he admitted drug dealing as part of serious organised crime.
When Smith leaves jail, he must adhere to the terms of a Serious Crime Prevention Order for three years.
This will stop him from having anything to do with other criminals and will also keep tabs on his finances and travel plans.
But there is some doubt as to whether Smith, who has a previous conviction for robbing an Alford shop with an axe, will see that day.
The court heard Smith has a brain tumour and a recent operation was only partially successful.
Smith’s lawyer Tony Lenehan KC told the court that, because a portion of the brain tumour remained, his client was “fatalistic” about where and when his life would end.
Mr Lenehan also said that there had been no UK-wide or international element to Smith’s drug dealing.
After the hearing, the Crown Office’s major crime lead Moira Orr said: “Christopher Smith was intent on profiting from criminality even from his prison cell by flooding communities with drugs and carrying out deals as part of an organised crime network.
“This was an illegal enterprise, run from his prison cell, and it is clear his role was pivotal.”