Police seized £500k of cocaine including from graveyard drugs handover

Police seized more than £500,000 of cocaine including from a graveyard drugs handover, a court heard.

Officers carried out two raids within days of each other in Paisley, in 2023.

Andrew Crossey had been the target of surveillance and he was spotted leaving his home in his white Audi on 2nd May.

The 42-year-old pulled up at Hawkhead Cemetery in the town, where associate Sean Teesdale arrived in a BMW.

The 28-year-old briefly got into Crossey’s car before returning to his own and driving off.

Prosecutor David McLean told the High Court in Glasgow that tracking police then tried to stop Teesdale at traffic lights in the city’s Nitshill area.

However, he drove off and was spotted chucking items out of the car window.

Teesdale was eventually stopped, and officers initially discovered £1,605 in cash inside the car.

The discarded packages were also collected and found to be cocaine with a purity of 81 per cent.

The haul had a potential value of around £38,000.

Teesdale generally made no comment when quizzed, but did state: “Wrong place at wrong time – I should not have been there and that is that.”

Fingerprints linked both him and Crossey to the consignment.

Police meantime kept Crossey under watch and, on 11th May, saw him carrying a yellow ‘Bag for Life’ before getting into a white Mercedes van.

He was later seen in Paisley where 32 year-old Gary McGhee got in the vehicle and then left with the bag.

McGhee went into a property in the Shortroods area of the town, where police then swooped.

Officers checked the house and found the bathroom locked. When McGhee opened the door, they immediately saw the yellow ‘Bag for Life’ on the floor, along with what appeared to be blocks of controlled drugs later identified as cocaine, as well as a large black-handled kitchen knife.

The drugs had a purity of up to almost 80 per cent.

The court heard the stash had a potential value of around £500,000.

Forensic evidence again helped pin the traffickers to this haul.

Crossey, of Paisley, admitted to two drug supply charges with McGhee, also of the town, and Teesdale, of Stewarton, Ayrshire, one each.

Lady Ross deferred sentencing for reports until a later date.