Making a killing from misery
Reid helped flood Scotland with etizolam
A Paisley drug kingpin who faces jail for running a massive operation from a backstreet garage was behind other fake Valium factories.
It has been revealed that businessman Eric Reid, 45, was a main player in flooding the streets of Renfrewshire and the West of Scotland with designer drug etizolam.
He made a killing while drug addicts lost their lives after taking the blue pills his gang was churning out by the million.
Reid, from Johnstone, was banned from being a company director for eight years in 2015 after it became clear he was using a dodgy company as a front for drug dealing.
When Reid’s drugs factory was about to be inspected by council officials, he liquidated the business, on paper at least.
During his trial at Glasgow High Court, Senior Advocate Depute Jane Farquharson said: “This is an indication of what a man he is.
“He has a cool head on a businessman’s shoulders.”
A year before the liquidation, Reid had already set up the Vitamin and Supplement Co Ltd, to import etizolam and other drug materials, like food dyes for the blue, yellow and white tablets, from China.
Chemicals were being sent by FedEx directly to brazen Reid’s garage premises at Underwood Road in Paisley.
Then in March, 2016, Reid was found slumped at the wheel of his £70,000 BMW near his near his garage in Paisley.
Knowing that etizolam was at that time a legal high, he told police he was involved in the manufacture of etizolam “on an industrial scale” and had inhaled the fumes.
Despite the fact etizolam, in 2016, was connected to 270 Scottish deaths, he was given just an eight month driving ban and a fine at Paisley Sheriff Court.
Reid rented business premises at Back Sneddon Street and arranged to buy and install the £20,000 rotary pill press at the unit.
The garage boss continued to monitor the premises via a CCTV link to his home in nearby Johnstone.
By April 2016, Renfrewshire Council officials were seeking to inspect Reid’s rented premises, which was a fully equipped etizolam factory,
He responded by liquidating the company.
Reid was charged with being involved in an etizolam factory in Howwood, where an identical pill machine was in operation.
But he escaped with a not proven verdict but co-accused Jamie Woods got six years in jail after a trial in October this year.
Brian McConnachie QC, defending Reid, claimed his client made no denial of mass production of etizolam prior to it being made illegal in May, 2016.
He said: “In this trial it has never been suggested for a moment that Eric Reid was not involved in the production of etizolam prior to the introduction of the Psychoactive Substances Act.”
He told the jury: “You might think that production of psychoactive substances before that Act came into force was immoral and I’m not going to argue with you about morality.
“But this is not a court of morals and what you are being asked to decide on is a question of legality. This is a court of law.”
Cops finally busted the operation in March, 2017.
And justice finally caught up with Reid this week when he was found guilty of the production of etizolam between May 26 and March 1 last year.
He is due to be sentenced at a later date.
He has a cool head on a businessman’s shoulders Senior Advocate Depute Jane Farquharson