Man took three-year-old with him to collect drugs haul

A man took a three-year-old boy with him to collect a haul of cocaine worth up to £600,000 on the streets.

Gavin Kirkcaldy picked up the batch of Class A drugs from a Range Rover at a pub car park as undercover police officers watched.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the driver of the 4×4 was linked to a crime gang in the north west of England.

Police detained Kirkcaldy, 30, as he walked away from the rendezvous carrying a rucksack containing the drugs with the child.

Inside the rucksack they found two kilos of 75% pure cocaine, which was capable of being bulked out to produce about 15 kilos of the drug for street sales.

Advocate depute Mark McGuire said: “On November 6, 2019, officers of the National Crime Agency and the Police Service of Scotland were involved in an ongoing operation regarding the suspected trafficking of controlled drugs throughout the United Kingdom.

“That afternoon they followed a particular vehicle, a Range Rover, upon which they had been maintaining surveillance. The driver of the Range Rover was known to have links to an organised crime group.”

The vehicle was driven into the car park of The Kittoch pub at Stewartfield Crescent, East Kilbride, in South Lanarkshire, and parked up while officers watched.

Mr McGuire said that five minutes later Kirkcaldy appeared carrying the child and opened the front passenger door and appeared to be talking to the driver. He then took the rucksack from the rear of the vehicle and began leaving.

“Once the accused was out of view of the Range Rover the monitoring officers moved in and detained him,” said Mr McGuire. When Kirkcaldy was cautioned he replied: “It’s in the bag.”

Kirkcaldy was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking after two packages wrapped in brown tape were found in the rucksack. He was interviewed but made no comment.

The court heard that each of the two blocks of cocaine could be bought for £40,000. But because of their high purity the drugs could be adulterated to produce about 15 kilos for street deals and could make between £300,000 and £600,000.

Kirkcaldy, of Frederick Street, Dunfermline, in Fife, admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine on November 6 last year at Stewartfield Crescent, East Kilbride, when he appeared in court on Thursday. The offence was aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime.

The court was told that unemployed Kirkcaldy lived with his partner and four children and has 15 previous convictions, including offences of violence, disorderly conduct and fraud.

He was serving a community payback order for fraud at the time of the drug crime.

Mr McGuire said: “The accused has never received a custodial sentence nor does he have any convictions relating to drug possession or trafficking.”

Defence counsel Michael Anderson said that Kirkcaldy was acting as a courier for the drug haul.

The judge, Lord Beckett, deferred sentence on Kirkcaldy, who was on bail, for the preparation of a background report and remanded him in custody.