Liverpool drug dealer jailed

YET another Merseyside heroin courier was jailed at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

Thomas MacAleavey, of 30 Wye Street, Liverpool, was arrested as he left the ferry at Lerwick’s Holmsgarth terminal on 27 May last year carrying drugs worth £5,000 in pre-prepared deals.

The 48 year old has been in custody since last month when he pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin and surrendered himself to the police.

The court heard that he was no more than “a foot soldier” who would have gained no financial benefit from drugs he was supplying, having been harassed into the smuggling attempt.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said that since this incident MacAleavey had been tackling his opiate addiction and was now clean of drugs.

Jailing him for 43 months, Sheriff Graeme Napier said he was taking into account the background of harassment associated with MacAleavey having stolen a quantity of drugs himself.

The sheriff added that this was another case of people trying to make a profit “out of the abject misery occasioned by addiction to this harmful substance, which still seems to provide an allure for many young people who pass their lives in what to an outside observer seems a grossly unsatisfying way.”

The regular appearance of addicts in the islands’ court acted as a constant reminder of the need to mark society’s disapproval of the trade, he said.