News / Police drugs sting leads to jail
A SHETLAND man was jailed and a second is likely to be sent down for dealing heroin after they were caught in an undercover police sting operation last September.
Last month Police Scotland’s organised crime and counter terrorism unit said they had arrested six people when they targeted known drug dealers in Shetland, only two of whom have appeared in court so far.
Appearing from custody on Thursday, 39 year old Ralph Halcrow, of Brind, Cunningsburgh, admitted selling two £20 wraps of heroin and four diazepam pills on a lane off Lerwick’s Commercial Street on 19 and 21 September.
The court heard that Halcrow sold the drugs to two undercover officers called Gary and Mel who said they were suffering drug withdrawals.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said his client took pity on them because he had been through heroin withdrawal himself, however procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie insisted it was a purely commercial operation with no altruistic motive.
The court was told Halcrow was already serving a prison sentence for possessing heroin and was on his way home on early release to live under curfew at his home, when he was arrested for this earlier offence as he disembarked the ferry in Lerwick.
Pleading for a community-based sentence, Allan argued that Halcrow was now drug free for the first time in a long time and intended to stay that way.
However Sheriff Philip Mann said the court’s policy was to jail drug dealers, though he reduced his prison sentence from six to three months to take into account the fact that he had already lost some of his liberty.
Meanwhile 50 year old John Smith, of 15 Lovers Loan, Lerwick, was told he can expect to be locked up after he pled guilty to selling undercover police four £20 wraps of heroin on three occasions between 12 and 16 September at an address on the town’s Holmsgarth Brae.
Deferring sentence until 9 January for background reports, Sheriff Philip Mann told Smith: “You must be realistic about this and prepare for a custodial sentence, that is the most likely outcome.”
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