DRUGS RAP EX-JAMBO FACES JAIL
MacDonald had £37k of cocaine
A FORMER Hearts footballer is facing jail after being convicted of running a £37,500 drug dealing operation.
Paul MacDonald, 29, was arrested after police found cocaine and drug manufacturing equipment at a flat following a tip-off.
During a raid in March 2015, they discovered a hydraulic press, a set of scales and bags containing cocaine worth £37,500 at the property in Blantyre, Lanarkshire.
The ex-midfielder was charged with being concerned in the supply of cocaine after his DNA was found on the buttons of the scales and his fingerprints were found on the bags.
MacDonald, of East Kilbride, also played for Clyde and represented Scotland at youth level.
He formed a security alarm firm after quitting the game in 2010 and told Hamilton Sheriff Court he had only visited the flat once – to carry out an alarm survey for the landlord.
He said a set of scales and empty bags had fallen out of a boiler cupboard when he was there and he had picked them up.
MacDonald insisted: “I had no involvement with any drug dealing. I had nothing to do with this.”
But the court heard a neighbour at the block of flats said he had seen a man resembling MacDonald frequenting the property.
The jury took just an hour to find MacDonald guilty by a majority verdict.
Sheriff Thomas Millar remanded him in custody and he will be sentenced next month.