Drug courier jailed

Jul 15 2010 by Debbie Hall, West Lothian Courier

A DRUG courier caught carrying heroin with a street value of up to £8000 has been jailed.

Kevin Aniello pleaded guilty to supplying just over 81g of the drug, which was valued at between £2300 and £8200.

Sheriff Grahame Fleming sentenced Aniello to 20 months in prison for the offence.

Senior Depute Fiscal John Barclay explained to Livingston Sheriff Court that had the heroin been sold in three one ounce deals, it would have fetched between £750 and £800 per deal, with a value of around £2300.

If it had been sold in batches of 200mg, which would have meant 400 deals at £20 each, it would have fetched £8200.

Barclay told the court that on April 1 at around 4.15pm, police officers were on patrol in Livingston when they received intelligence that Aniello, whose address was given HMP Saughton, was driving with a provisional licence and that he may have been in possession of drugs.

He said Aniello was seen by the officers entering the Paraffin Lamp pub and later left and got back into his car with another man.

After driving off Aniello was followed by the officers, who ordered him to stop and he turned into Everard Rise in Dedridge.

He got out of the driver’s side of the vehicle as the police car entered the street.

Aniello approached the police and apologised for his driving – although officers said they thought he was trying to distract them.

He was put into the police car while officers looked under his vehicle and found two packages of powder, smaller than the size of a golf ball, wrapped in cellophane.

Officers noted that while the ground was wet and dirty, as it has been snowing, the items were dry, indicating they had only just been deposited.

The three packages were found to contain heroin diamorphine.

Aniello was interviewed by officers, and told them that he hadn’t seen the packages before. His solicitor, Alan Jackson, told the court his client had been remanded for the offence since April.

“This has been his first time and experience of jail,” Jackson said.

“He was asked to meet and deliver what he knew to be heroin but he did not know the amount of it.

“He was stopped by the police fairly quickly. He appears to have been genuinely shocked when advised of the quantities and more specifically the values [of the heroin]. His trade of five bags of heroin that was his reward was worth it to him. He was in desperate need of heroin at the time.

“He has taken steps to detox in prison – to his credit.”

As well as the prison term, the 30-year-old was also handed six penalty points for driving without insurance.