Easter Ross man (28) told to hand over £7000 for part in major Highland drugs operation which had stash sites at Fyrish and Munlochy
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A ROSS-SHIRE man who was a member of a major drugs gang has been ordered to hand more than £7000 over to prosecutors under proceeds of crime legislation.
Ryan Ross (28) was part of an operation which flooded the Highlands with narcotics and was run by former footballer, Alasdair Finlayson (26).
The court was told the drugs operation used "stash sites" in wooded areas in the countryside to hide drugs, cash and bulking agents to cut the cocaine.
The drugs operation was uncovered after Scottish police officers began assisting counterparts from England over suspected English drug dealers
Scottish officers watched a series of meetings between "persons of interest to the English authorities" and Highland locals.
Police discovered a site at Fyrish in Easter Ross where clumps of moss had been moved to create a hideout for drugs, cash, gloves, scales and bulking agents. They found 10 kilos of herbal cannabis and more than one and a half kilos of cannabis.
Further drugs, including a haul of high purity cocaine, were also found in searches of woods at Munlochy and off the Glenglass Road in Evanton.
Ross, of Gateside, Balintore, was ordered to carry out 300 hours unpaid work under a community payback order.
He was also fined £2000 after admitting a proceeds of crime offence by acquiring and having possession of criminal property in sums of cash between July 13 and August 6 in 2020.
On Monday, during a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh, lawyers agreed that Ross made £9,085.00 from his life of crime.
The court also heard that he now only has £7,485.00 available.
Prosecutor Dan Byrne asked Lord Weir to make an order compelling him to hand the cash over.
At proceedings earlier this year, Finlayson was linked to cocaine and cannabis seized during a police anti-drugs operation which recovered drugs worth more than £650,000 on the streets.
Judge Simon Collins KC gave Finlayson a nine-year jail term.
He added: "You were in charge and actively involved in a substantial drug dealing operation."
Judge Collins told him that he would have faced a 10-year prison sentence for the offences, but for his guilty pleas.
Finlayson earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis between January and August 2020. The judge was told that Finlayson was assessed as the individual in charge after he was found to have travelled between sites and sold drugs.
But the Crown accepted he had built up debts to those higher up in organised crime and had received threatening messages over the debts.
Defence solicitor advocate James Keegan KC, for Finlayson, said he had played football for North Caledonian side Alness United and went into coaching, before getting caught up in drug dealing.
Mr Keegan told the court: "It is astonishing to see such a downward spiral in a relatively short period of time."
Co-accused Cameron Ross (22), formerly of Cromlet Park, Invergordon, was jailed for 23 months after admitting being concerned in the supply of cocaine between June 10 and 12 in 2020 at woodland off Glenglass Road, in Evanton.
A fourth man Daniel Degan (32), of Coach House Cottages, Alness, was also fined £2000 and ordered to carry out 300 hours unpaid work after admitting being concerned in the supply of cocaine on July 31 in 2020.
