Gang boss handed extra jail time after drugs and dirty cash raid

A crime gang boss has been handed an extra three years jail time after being snared in a drugs and dirty cash raid.

Dale Cleeton – once fined for verbally abusing then England rugby coach Eddie Jones – was back at the High Court in Glasgow.

It was there, in August 2024, he was locked up for seven years for running a major narcotics ring from his cell at the time in HMP Edinburgh.

This latest charge Cleeton, 33, faced came after he was stopped in a car on the M8 near Livingston, West Lothian on August 24 2023.

Two iPhones were discovered and seized to be checked.

Prosecutor David Adams stated it emerged Cleeton had been in “communications” with a number of criminal associates.

Mr Adams said: “He was using different pseudonyms across different encrypted messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Snapchat.

“The messages related to the supply and distribution of cocaine at a mid to high level as well as to the collection and accounting of payment for the drug.”

The scope of his involvement included one message revealing he had £51,000 due to be paid to another “supplier”.

He was also in contact with an associate about sourcing cocaine from London, but that it could be not be paid for with Scottish banknotes.

The court heard electronic “tick-lists” were also found of who Cleeton and others had been supplying the drugs to.

The potential value of the cocaine mentioned in them was up to £256,750.

The prosecutor said: “It can be seen from messages that the scale of the activities which Cleeton was involved was extensive, apparently lucrative and the equivalent to that of a wholesaler.”

Cleeton pled gullty to a charge of being involved with others in serious organised crime between July and August 2023.

Donald Findlay KC, defending, said: “He is not a foolish man. He understands what he has done.

“He sometimes struggles to see the woods from the trees, but he is not unaware what lies ahead if he does not sort himself out.”

Lord Arthurson said he had taken in consideration a number of legal matters and Cleeton’s current sentence in deciding this latest term.

The stint was cut from four years and will start at the end of the seven years previously imposed.

In the 2024 case, it emerged Cleeton’s gang had a turnover at one stage of £216,000-per month as they sought to flood the capital and the Lothians with cocaine.

But, the lucrative trafficking operation was smashed after two phones and sim cards used by Cleeton were found while he was inside.

He and three other member of the trafficking mob were sentenced to a total of more than 18 years.