Renfrew taxi driver caught with £300,000 of cocaine on M74 motorway A RENFREW taxi driver who was caught ferrying high purity cocaine worth more than £300,000 on the streets was jailed two years and eight months today.
Thomas Haggerty was stopped by police near Lockerbie, in Dumfriesshire, as he drove the consignment of Class A drugs north.
Haggerty, 30, of Lang Avenue, Renfrew, was found to have two kilos of cocaine after he was stopped by officers on July 28 last year.
But the blocks, which were stamped with a "Vans" logo, were discovered to be nearly 60 per cent pure after testing.
They had the potential to produce eight kilos of the drug if they were bulked out to produce narcotics of the normal level of strength found on the streets.
If the adulterated drug was sold in one gram deals it had the potential to be worth £312,000.
A judge told Haggerty at the High Court in Edinburgh: "The trafficking in Class A drugs is a vile and evil trade bringing misery to individuals and communities."
Lord Boyd of Duncansby said: "You have a limited record and from what I have read a good work ethos."
The judge said that the amount of cocaine involved in the seizure was "not insignificant".
He told Haggerty he would have jailed him for four years if he had been convicted after trial, but said the sentence would be reduced following his guilty plea.
Haggerty had earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine on the A74(M) Carlisle to Glasgow road.
The court heard that police saw him driving in the northbound carriageway and were aware of intelligence that he was carrying drugs from the Merseyside area to Scotland. Haggerty was alone in the vehicle when it was stopped.
Defence counsel Paul Nelson said Haggerty had acted as a courier on one day after finding himself in "a difficult position".
source:
http://www.the-gazette.co.uk/news/14671 ... f_cocaine/
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