Drug trafficker caught in police sting

Sep 29 2011 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

A WEST Lothian drug trafficker who was freed early from prison was caught organising deliveries of high purity cocaine in an undercover police operation.

Adnan Ul-Haq became the main target for a police operation aimed against the scourge of dealing in Class A drugs in West Lothian which intercepted dope worth more than £200,000 on the streets.

Ul-Haq (31) was jailed for four-and-a-half years in 2007 for a cocaine offence but was freed in the summer of 2009.

But while out from prison on licence Ul-Haq returned to the illegal cocaine trade last year.

Police recovered two consignments of the drug worth more than £140,000 being delivered by couriers linked to Ul-Haq.

Advocate depute Martin Macari told the High Court in Edinburgh that during the course of a police operation, codenamed Operation Congress, officers received intelligence over his involvement in cocaine supply.

A specialist surveillance team was deployed to monitor Ul-Haq and his associates between June and September.

The prosecutor said: “From surveillance and intelligence over the period it became apparent that cocaine was being sourced from the Manchester area on behalf of Ul-Haq. He liaised either in person or by phone with those in that area who were able to supply cocaine.

“Individuals under the control of Ul-Haq would uplift cocaine from Manchester and transport it to West Lothian. This cocaine could be of a high purity, capable of further adulteration, if so wished, for the purposes of onward supply.

“The surveillance and intelligence provided little information as to Ul-Haq’s method of disposal of the cocaine he received.”

Ul-Haq, of Fulmar Brae, Livingston, and three couriers earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine last year. The trial of a co-accused Richard Steele (29) formerly of Hersey Street, Manchester, who claimed to be a car trader, ended this week when he was unanimously found guilty of the same offence.

Steele’s DNA was found on drugs packaging and he was identified as the man who gave cocaine to one of the couriers.

Mr Macari told jurors: “He is the thread running through this entire supply operation.”

The court heard that in June last year police received intelligence that Ul-Haq was arranging for couriers to travel by train to England to pick up cocaine on his behalf.

Unemployed Mark Magdani (24) of Craigswood, Livingston, and college student Martin Arthur (24) of Loanfoot, Uphall, were identified as potential suspects and were seen to board a train for Manchester in Edinburgh.

They were detained on their return to Waverley station with a rucksack containing 100g of cocaine. But the drug was so pure that experts reckoned it could be bulked out to make nearly one and a half kilos for street level sale worth nearly £60,000.

Mr Macari said: “The recovered drug had a purity of 74 per cent. The average in Scotland last year was five per cent.”

The following day Ul-Haq was seen driving a van to Glasgow and was later stopped by officers in the city in the company of two men, one of whom was Steele. Ul-Haq was found to have mobile phones on him and analysis showed he had been in touch with Magdani and Arthur during the Manchester trip.

It also revealed that he repeatedly tried to contact the pair after they were detained in what police believed were “panic calls” trying to find out where the couriers were.

Another suspected courier, ground worker Andrew Hamilton (27) of Caledonian Terrace, Fauldhouse, was followed by police when he drove a van to Manchester in August and was seen to meet Ul-Haq when he returned to West Lothian.

Hamilton was stopped by police on his return to Scotland in September after another trip to the English city and cocaine was found behind the van’s glove box and in McDonald’s bag. The kilo of the drug in the bag had already been cut to five per cent purity and was worth up to £40,000.

But the smaller amount of 75g discovered behind the glove box was so pure that it could have been bulked to provide more than a kilo for street sale and was worth up to £44,000.

Judge Michael O’Grady QC deferred sentence on Ul-Haq, Steele, Hamilton, Magdani and Arthur until next month.