Man caught with £2.6m of cocaine among Santa gift bags jailed

A man who was caught with £2.6m of cocaine stashed among Santa gift bags in a Glasgow flat has been jailed for more than four years.

Jordan Wetherill was arrested after 100 blocks of cocaine and a small amount of heroin were recovered from a property in Balintore Street, Shettleston, on 21 December last year.

The court was previously shown a video of the police operation with the huge haul of drugs taped up in the living room among festive gift bags.

The 23-year-old, from Parkhead, admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and heroin.

The judge said that the first offender would have faced a seven-and-a-half-year sentence had he not pleaded guilty.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Ghosh reduced the sentence further to take into account time Wetherill spent when he was subject to electronic monitoring.

During the police raid he was found in the flat with another person.

Officers initially discovered packages of heroin in a supermarket carrier bag.

Police then found 103 blocks of white powder all marked with a FedEx-style delivery company label.

The High Court in Glasgow previously heard Wetherill's fingerprints at the scene also linked him to the crime.

The value of the cocaine was £2,591,000 with the heroin worth an estimated £30,000.

Defence solicitor advocate Billy Lavelle said that Wetherill had "a significant cannabis addiction" at the time.

He said: "It has clearly been an issue for a long time.

"At that time he had built up a significant debt to certain people."

Lavelle told the court that Wetherill was put under pressure to become involved in the offending due to the debt and added: "He very much regrets this."