Seven year term for drugs supply
A dog breeder from North Lanarkshire was one of a gang of seven jailed after cops foiled a high-level drug dealing operation.
Richard Parvin, 38, from Motherwell was hit with the longest sentence of the seven who were jailed for a total of more than 26 years at the High Court in Glasgow after they were snared with drugs and cash worth around £400,000.
Parvin, along with Neil Brown, 34; George McLean, 32; Craig Mitchell, 30; John Cord, 34; Francis Ross Snr, 47; and his son also Francis Ross Jnr, 22, had all entered guilty pleas to charges of being involved in the supply of controlled drugs.
Most of the offences took place in Dundee with five of those jailed living in the city, and McLean living at an address in Glasgow’s Easterhouse area.
The court had previously heard that detectives had been carrying out surveillance on the gang as part of Operation Boost and stopped Parvin as he was driving between Dundee and Perth in May 2019.
They discovered over £12,500 in cash and seized his mobile phone.
They later seized another phone f rom him which contained pictures of blocks of cocaine, tick lists and messages implicating him in the supply of drugs.
WhatsApp messages also made reference to large sums of money.
Officers went on to make other arrests following drug raids at properties, mainly in Dundee.
Cocaine valued at £319,000 and heroin worth £10,000 was discovered at Ross junior’s house after he met with McLean.
And a further £24,000 of heroin was found at Ross senior’s home after that was searched.
McLean was found to have £12,000 in cash at his home in Glasgow when arrested, which he told them was to buy a car.
They also discovered heroin at two other properties he was linked to.
Cops were also able to link Brown to heroin and street valium after his wallet was found in a car in Dundee on May 29 that year after two people had been seen fleeing from the vehicle.
Mitchell and Cord were spotted repeatedly circling one of the properties in a car which was being raided by police.
Phone records showed that Brown, Ross junior, Mitchell and Cord were all in communication with each other about drug supply.
A hydraulic press was also discovered during the raids.
Judge Lord Weir handed jail terms to all seven men.
Parvin was sentenced to seven years and four months, McLean was handed a five years and five months term, Brown was given three years, Ross Jnr. three years and six months, Ross Snr. two years 10 months.
Meanwhile, Mitchell and Cord were both sentenced to two years two months each.