A FORMER policeman accused of trafficking cocaine worth millions of pounds as part of an international drug smuggling operation walked free from court yesterday.
Douglas Fleming was the subject of a two-year undercover police operation, during which he was trailed to the West Indies.
Yesterday, a jury at the High Court in Glasgow found the case against him not proven.
It is the second time the Crown ha
s failed to secure a conviction against Mr Fleming, 43, for alleged involvement with a global cocaine-smuggling operation. On the first occasion, in September 2004, the case against him collapsed after it emerged that police officers involved in the trial were watching the proceedings from a remote viewing room, which the defence counsel argued could be prejudicial to the case.
It had been alleged he was involved in the attempted transfer of as much as 200 kilos of cocaine from Colombia through the Belgian port of Antwerp.
The court heard Mr Fleming, from Langbank, Renfrewshire, who is believed to have served as a police officer in Scotland in the late 1980s, had been followed to Antigua, where he met up with Martin Toner.
An alleged drug smuggler, Mr Toner was murdered and his body dumped in a field in Langbank in July 2004. He had been due to appear at the High Court accused of being involved in the importation of cocaine.
Throughout his trial, Mr Fleming, who owned a construction firm and a property development company, said he knew Mr Toner, and that their common interest was property. He denied having anything to do with drugs.
At Mr Fleming's trial, an undercover Belgian policeman, known only as "Mike", told the jury he had infiltrated a multimillion-pound drugs operation. The court heard he had been recommended to Colombian drug barons as a fixer in Antwerp by a source they trusted. "Mike" claimed Mr Fleming, whom he said he knew as "Ben", contacted him by telephone to talk about importing a container of drugs from Colombia.
The court heard evidence from a Colombian drug dealer who said he witnessed 200 kilos of cocaine being loaded into a container allegedly intended for transport to "Ben" and others.
"Mike" alleged Mr Fleming arrived in Antwerp on 29 October, 2001, to meet him to discuss how the drug could be removed from the container, and how to bring in further loads.
"Mike" was part of Operation Backslider, which targeted Mr Fleming and others, including Mr Toner. "Mike" said he knew the latter as "Tom".
Mr Fleming, thought to be originally from Inverness, was cleared yesterday of smuggling cocaine, along with Mr Toner, on various occasions in 2001 and 2002. A second charge, of being concerned in the supply of cocaine between 23 February and 11 May, 2002, was also found not proven. His co-accused, James Cameron, 49, from Springburn, Glasgow, was found not guilty of being concerned in the supply of cocaine in Glasgow in 2002.
The full article contains 500 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
