Addict jailed after heroin worth £100k found in flat

A MAN has been jailed for four years after heroin worth more than £100,000 on the street was abandoned at his home during a police raid.

Police officers in protective helmets carry out a raid looking for drugs. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

Officers turned up at Kevin McCuaig’s flat in Leith armed with a search warrant and forced entry.

But the High Court in the Capital heard that they discovered a multi-lock door had been fitted and it took them a number of minutes to get in.

Advocate depute Keith O’Mahony said: “Upon gaining entry to the premises police observed at the top of the stairs within the flat a small fire hatch which leads out into a fire escape.”

They found a tub containing bags of heroin inside the hatch at the flat at Citadel Court in Admiralty Street.

The prosecutor said: “Police formed the opinion that someone had just exited the hatch prior to them entering and had dropped the tub as they made off.”

Officers found more heroin in the flat along with a hydraulic press, scales, plastic bags and adulterants used to bulk out the drug.

Almost a kilo and a half of heroin was recovered in the search of McCuaig’s home following the police raid on January 26 this year.

DNA samples taken from knots on bags provided a match with the unemployed man. Police traced him days later and detained him and he later confirmed he was the tenant of the flat.

McCuaig, 36, who has previous convictions for drugs offences, admitted being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug on Janaury 26 at his home, when he appeared in court today from custody.

Defence solicitor advocate Krista Johnston said heroin user McCuaig had allowed his flat to be used for storing and mixing the drug.

He had wanted to help pay off a debt run up by a relative who was being threatened.

She said McCuaig realised that a prison sentence was “inevitable” for the offence.

Judge Michael O’Grady QC told McCuaig that “a substantial amount of heroin” was involved regardless of the role he had played in the chain of supply.

The judge told him he would have sentenced him to six years imprisonment, but for his guilty plea.

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