Pair jailed over £1.5m drugs supply hub in warehouse

Two men have been jailed for large-scale drug supply after police recovered more than £1.5m of drugs from a warehouse in Moray.

Ben Terry, 35, and Mark Davidson, 36, admitted using the warehouse in Elgin to ship out drugs to customers throughout Britain.

The men worked with an organised crime gang to run what was described as a distribution hub.

At the High Court in Kilmarnock, the men were jailed for nine years and five months each.

Police found the warehouse stocked with cocaine, ecstasy, MDMA, LSD, ketamine, diazepam, the Class A drug DMT, mephedrone and dihydrocodeine, on 8 December 2024.

Davidson was the leaseholder for a unit in Elgin and the pair were directors of a firm called Eliv8 Details Ltd.

Advocate depute David Dickson KC previously said that, according to Companies House, the nature of the business was the maintenance, repair and sale of cars and specialist and other cleaning services.

He told the court the warehouse was one of several around the UK which had been identified by the National Crime Agency.

"These warehouses operated as distribution hubs for drugs which were ordered via (messaging app) Telegram," he said.

Following the lease of the unit, the two men were working with an organised crime group based in England and agreed to use the leased warehouse as a distribution centre for a large variety of drugs.

The Telegram accounts then received orders from a large number of addresses throughout the UK for drug deliveries, varying from large parcels of 1kg down to 1g.

"They supplied both dealers and users alike," Dickson said.

"Both accused fulfilled the orders from the distribution centre in Elgin by packaging the parcels and sending them via Royal Mail for next-day delivery. They would receive payments either in cash, bank transfer or Bitcoin."

The prosecutor said a number of packages containing either drugs or cash were intercepted in the postal system and could be linked back to the accused.

Following the discoveries, police were granted warrants to search the properties in Mosstodloch and Garmouth, in Moray, as well as a unit in Elgin.

Dickson said the search at the unit "disclosed a significant quantity of different drugs, most of which were in envelopes and other packaging in preparation for distribution through the Post Office".

He said MDMA worth in excess of £715,000 was found along with £303,000 worth of cocaine, £236,510 of LSD, £111,050 of amphetamine, £36,900 of ecstasy, £77,864 of ketamine, £26,160 of the psychedelic drug DMT, more than £38,000 of mephedrone and dihydrocodeine valued at £18,350.

Terry's then address in Garmouth was searched. A total of 2,560 diazepam tablets were recovered, along with 50g of cocaine.

A search of Davidson's address in Mosstodloch, recovered £18,045 in cash along with the agreement for the lease of the warehouse at the unit at Tower Place, in Elgin.

The court heard that some of the cocaine found in the police operation was as high as 76% or 77% purity. Officers also found 47,302 paper squares with LSD.

Terry, from Dundee, and Davidson, from Mosstodloch, admitted 10 charges of being concerned in the supply of a variety of drugs.

All the offences were aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime.

Procurator Fiscal Sineidin Corrins, of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: "This was a coordinated effort to traffic significant quantities of illegal and harmful drugs throughout the UK.

"These men are now serving lengthy prison sentences."

Terry and Davidson will now be subject to confiscation action under Proceeds of Crime legislation.