£12,000 heroin dealer is jailed for five years

Drugs seized in cop raid

A notorious Paisley heroin dealer has been jailed for five years after he was caught with a £ 12,000 stash of drugs.

James Mooney, 48, had only just been released from a previous five-year stretch for drug dealing months earlier when cops swooped on his family home.

Officers raided the dad- of- three’s house in Glencairn Road, Gallowhill, where they discovered a raw form of heroin and dozens of ecstasy tablets.

The dealer claimed the large stash was for personal use when he appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court last December.

However, after pleading guilty to drugs charges, he was told he would be punished at the High Court — because sentencing powers at the sheriff court are too weak.

Yesterday at the High Court in Edinburgh a judge told Mooney: “You returned from prison to your home and simply repeated your involvement in the supply of heroin.”

Lady Scott said she accepted that the value of the drugs was not at the highest level but added that his position was significantly aggravated by his criminal record.

Mooney was twice previously jailed for drugs offences. In 2013 he was given a five-year sentence after he was caught with heroin.

Lady Scott ordered that he be returned to jail to serve 364 days of the unexpired part of that sentence.

She then jailed Mooney for a further four years for his latest offences and told him she would have imposed a six-year prison term on him, but for his guilty pleas and the time he had spent on remand.

Defence counsel Tony Lenehan said a “relatively low value of drugs” was involved in Mooney’s latest offending which occurred on a single day.

Police armed with a search warrant swarmed the property on September 12 last year where they found Mooney, his wife Bernadette, 47, and son Declan, 22, inside.

When shown the warrant by cops Mooney said: “Somebody stuck us in.”

The inquiry team discovered heroin in rock form weighing 220 grams and 84 MDMA tablets during the search.

Mooney was arrested, taken in custody and interviewed, where he repeatedly replied “no comment” when quizzed about the haul.

The drugs had a street value of around £11,610 for the heroin, if broken into deals, and the ecstasy was worth £820, if sold as individual pills.

Previously Mooney was given five years and four months by Lady Scott at the High Court in Paisley in May 2013 for drug dealing from the same address.

He was busted after tossing a bag containing £27,000 worth of drugs out of his window in Glencairn Road.

Cops who were raiding the property spotted the flying bag as they launched their swoop. The black bag contained amphetamine.

Officers also discovered £30,000 worth of heroin in rooms at the property, as well as £1,000 in cash.

Previously, Mooney had been sentenced to a oneyear term at the High Court in 2009 for drug offences.