Cocaine And Cannabis Haul Seized: Ex-Cop Jailed In Drug Sting

Brown was part of £2MILLION smuggling operation. Shamed former cop claims he was duped

- Grant McCabe

A SHAMED former police inspector has been convicted for his part in a £2million drugs racket.

David Brown is behind bars after cops swooped as he tried to smuggle cocaine and cannabis on to a ferry.

A DISGRACED ex-police inspector is behind bars for his role in a huge drug smuggling operation.

David Brown, 51, was snared having been recruited by haulage firm boss Lawrence Phee, who ran the illegal racket.

Prosecutors revealed drugs were smuggled from Spain into Scotland inside machinery.

Police went on to seize cocaine, cannabis resin and herbal cannabis with a value of upwards of £2million.

Brown, once commended for his work with British Transport Police, claimed he had been duped into trafficking drugs after being stopped ready to board a ferry to Ireland in December 2018.

The crime can now be reported following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Brown and Patrick Hattie, 52 – an associate of Phee – were convicted yesterday of supply of the drugs at Cairnryan, Shotts, Coatbridge and elsewhere in Scotland between November 1 and December 1, 2018

Phee, of Airdrie, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years last year after he pled guilty to the same charges. Reporting of that had been banned until the end of this trial.

Brown, of Carfin, Lanarkshire, and Hattie, of Airdrie, were remanded in custody pending sentencing next month at the High Court in Livingston.

Brown was jailed in 2016 for fraud while a serving officer in the British Transport Police.