Dealer helped run drugs gang from prison cell

COURT: Pair plead guilty to supplying heroin and cocaine – mainly in Dundee

A dealer played a vital role in a £360,000 drug gang from his jail cell.

Crawford Murphy was part of a large-scale crime clan caught dealing heroin and cocaine mainly in Dundee.

The 29-year-old was behind bars in late 2018 – but was able via phone to instruct associates to deliver drugs.

The messages included how the substances were to be packaged and where cash was to be paid into.

But detectives soon swooped on the gang including its leader, Kevin Ferguson, 34.

Murphy, Ferguson and accomplices George Black, 31, and Zane Astbury, 36, appeared at the High Court in Glasgow.

Murphy and Ferguson pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine.

Black and Astbury admitted being involved in trafficking heroin only.

The four will be sentenced next month.

Murphy, of East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, was in jail up to December 10 last year. He had been locked up for 54 months in England in 2014 for the cocaine charge.

Prosecutor Alan Cameron told the court: “He was serving a sentence but was instructing, via telephone messages, an individual to supply drugs and collect money on his behalf.”

The court heard Murphy was linked to a £29,000 cocaine deal where drugs were to be picked up in Lanarkshire then taken to Dundee in November 2018.

Weeks later – after he is thought to have been freed – Murphy ordered the delivery of £151,000 worth of heroin.

Police eventually raided a flat in Dundee, where a man tried to hurl an envelope containing drugs out of a window.

Ferguson meantime was described as the head of the organised crime gang supplying drugs in the city.

He was further involved after £175,000 worth of the drug was seized at George Black’s flat in Dundee.

Ferguson was also clocked in the handover of £12,550 drugs cash in May this year.

Weeks later, he was seen getting out of a car where £1,070 worth of heroin was found.

Murphy’s charges spanned between August 2018 and February this year.

Ferguson’s involvement ran from September 2018 to May 2019.

Black and Astbury were part of the gang in September last year.

Murphy as well as Ferguson and Black, both of Dundee, were remanded in custody.

Lord Arthurson continued bail for Astbury, also of Dundee.

Sentencing was deferred for reports.

Zane Astbury, of Dundee, admitted being involved in trafficking heroin.