Work-shy dealer caged

A DRUG dealer who led "a champagne lifestyle" despite claims he was never seen working has been jailed for seven and a half years.

Mark Halliday was earlier convicted of trafficking cocaine in Edinburgh between April and December 2006 following a trial by jury which lasted four weeks and involved more than 30 witnesses.

Prosecutors said the 29 year-old, of the capital's Grandfield area, was "a middle manager" in the drugs trade and "didn't need to get his hands dirty".

The jury also heard that Halliday regularly shopped in upmarket stores, such as Harvey Nichols, and treated a former lover to a sunshine break in the Maldives.

Police arrested him after seizing a hydraulic press used for compressing cocaine. Hundreds of hours of surveillance had failed to catch him with the drug.

Ian Duguid QC, defending, said Halliday had not benefited "materially or substantially" from drugs and that he continued to deny being involved.

At Glasgow High Court today, Judge Lord Brodie told Halliday: "There is nothing to suggest that you are a drug user. Very commonly, it is those at the lower level of the drugs scale who appear in court.

"I do not accept that you were at the lower level. You had a managerial role co-ordinating an organised operation over six months."

The sentencing brings to a conclusion Operation Hurricane, an intelligence-led police surveillance operation targeting cocaine dealers in Edinburgh.

Halliday, who headed the drugs ring in the east of Scotland, was the sixth and last person to stand trial, bringing the combined total of the various sentences imposed to more than 24 years.

The five co-accused were sentenced between April 2007 and November 2007 after they pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of a controlled drug, or of possession a controlled drug.

Malcolm Graham, Head of CID at Lothian and Borders Police of Lothian and Borders Police said: "Operation Hurricane was designed to target those who were blighting a community with their actions.

"The arrests of those individuals and their subsequent sentencing has shown that Lothian and Borders Police and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will not tolerate a minority of people bringing misery to the lives of others.

"We all want the Lothian and the Borders to be a place that its residents can feel safe in and proud of, and there is no place for criminal activity in that vision."
Morag McLauglin, Area Procurator Fiscal for Lothian and Borders said: "This lengthy and highly complex investigation and prosecution was specifically designed to target those responsible for supplying controlled drugs in Edinburgh and Midlothian.

"The convictions of these six individuals, come after months of preparation by prosecutors in the Procurator Fiscal's Office in Edinburgh.

"We are in no doubt about the corrosive effect which the supply of illicit drugs can have on a community. These convictions and sentences send a clear message to all those who continue to supply drugs in our communities that these destructive crimes will simply not be tolerated and that those responsible cannot escape justice."

A woman – believed to be a friend of Halliday's – broke down in tears outside the court after the sentence was passed.