Multi-million pound cocaine gangster ordered to sell Rolex watches

A gangster who participated in a global drugs supply scheme has agreed to sell two Rolex watches in order to end a proceeds of crime court action.

Stephen Gough, 48, consented to selling the designer timepieces during a short hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday.

He was given a five-year jail term in March 2025 at the High Court in Paisley after being convicted of being a “money man” in a multi-million-pound scheme which saw a Scots mob flood the country with South American cocaine.

The court heard how Gough took part in the scheme between March and June 2020.

On Monday, it emerged that Gough’s legal team agreed that he had made a total of £385,000 from his life of crime.

However, judge Norman McFadyen heard that both defence and prosecution counsels had agreed Gough only had £6,000 available at this point in time.

The court heard that this was the total amount which the Crown would receive from selling the two Rolexes and that Gough had agreed to them being put on the open market.

At earlier proceedings, the court heard how Gough, of Uddingston, Lanarkshire, was brought to justice after prosecutors were able to connect calls and messages sent on the encrypted Encrochat platform which tied the accused and his accomplice Tony Bennett to the criminal scam.

They were able to prove that the pair were using pseudonyms to talk to each other about drug dealing.

Gough had denied he was a user of one of the Encrochat handles. However, images were posted onto the platform which showed the interior of his home and even of himself.

Another message revealed they had approximately £217,000 in a bank account.

Bennett was given three years and nine months in September 2023 after being convicted of using secret laboratories to refine the drugs from Ecuador.

They were then supplied and sold to dealers throughout Scotland.

Gough was responsible for overseeing cash collected through the supply of the class A drugs.

He was arrested in August 2021 after the police raided his home.

Gough’s advocate Thomas Ross KC told the court that his client was a “hard-working man” who had been “duped” by Bennett.

He added: “For most of his life he’s been a working man. And was working right up to the start of his trial.

“To some extent, from the outset, he was duped. He was taken advantage of by Mr Bennett.”

On Monday, judge McFadyen authorised the settlement deal to be finalised.

Prosecutors can return to court if they find any more of Gough’s ill gotten gains