Crooks facing jail for flooding streets with £420k Etizolam pills
Drug dealers were behind huge street Valium racket
Two gangsters are facing prison after manufacturing street Valium at addresses in Paisley and Barrhead.
Gary Jamieson, 34, and John Mack, 33, admitted flooding Scotland with Etizolam tablets when they appeared at the High Court in Glasgow this week.
The men admitted heading up the manufacture and distribution of controlled drugs, mainly Etizolam, throughout Scotland following an intelligence- led policing operation which started in January last year.
During the operation, detectives carried out searches of addresses in Barrhead, Paisley, Pollok and Nitshill where they recovered 836,000 Etizolam tablets with an estimated street value of £420,000.
Etizolam is a depressant with sedative and muscle relaxant effects.
Mack and Jamieson were arrested in September and December last year respectively.
Detective Inspector Craig McPhail, of Glasgow’s serious and organised crime pro-active unit, said: “We would like to send a clear message to anyone who is involved in the supply of drugs onto the streets of Scotland that you cannot expect to profit from other people’s misery and get away with it.
“No one is untouchable. “Tackling serious and organised crime remains one of our key priorities.
“Drug supply causes so much misery in our communities, so we will continue to target organised crime groups at all levels and protect those communities affected and make our streets hostile places for such criminality.”
He added: “We rely on information from the public.
“They have a vital role to play in helping us remove drugs and drug dealers from our streets.
“Much of our positive action depends on local people passing on information, so keep doing this and we will continue to disrupt these criminals.
“You can pass on information by phoning 101, or via Crimestoppers, where anonymity can be maintained.”
Sentence for both men has been deferred until May 13.
Jamieson and Ma c k ’ s convictions come just over a year after crooks were found running a fake Valium factory in Paisley.
Eric Reid, from Johnstone, and
Scott McGaw, of Paisley, were locked up in December 2018 after police raided a garage where at least £1.6million of pills - known as the Blue Plage - was being made.
The men were found to have employed a drugs “pharmacist” to churn out 250,000 tablets an hour from an industrial pill press, which was imported from China.