Man cleared on heroin handover

A man accused of trafficking heroin from Greece to Scotland with a maximum street value of £7.8 million has walked free from court.

Russell Stirton, 58, from Milngavie, denied handing over two holdalls containing 34kg of the deadly drug at a service station in Greece to HGV driver Peter Cameron on 24 November, 2012.

Mr Cameron and his codriver, Samuel Wilson, were caught red-handed with the heroin hidden in a load of breadsticks when they crossed over to the port of Bari in Italy two days later. They were jailed for six years each.

The pair was supposed to travel with the heroin back to the UK and on to Scotland.

Mr Cameron yesterday claimed he had been handed the bags of heroin by Mr Stirton,butthejurydidnotbelieve his story and cleared the Scots businessman.

He told the High Court in Glasgow he had only glimpsed the drug courier for a few seconds during the handover.

However, when asked by Police Scotland detectives three years later in 2015 to pick out the person from a sheet of photographs he claimed it was Mr Stirton.

Mr Stirton was in Greece at the time on holiday, but denied ever being at the service station where the handover took place.

Mr Wilson told the jury the drugs were delivered to him by a man of Moroccan appearance.