News / Heroin dispute
A LERWICK man targetted by undercover police to catch Shetland drug dealers has claimed he only supplied them with heroin because he felt sorry for them.
Fifty year old John Smith, of 15 Lover’s Loan, pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug between 12 and 16 September last year.
Smith was one of six people detained by Police Scotland’s Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit during a sting operation in the isles.
Last month 39 year old Ralph Halcrow, of Brind, Cunninsgburgh, was jailed for three months for selling the undercover officers two £20 wraps of heroin and four diazepam pills.
Sentence on Smith was deferred until Thursday for background reports, when the court was told the officers approached him saying they were suffering from drug withdrawals.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said that when he was first approached, Smith gave them some of his own drugs and advised them to seek help from the relevant authorities.
They had returned, eventually came to his house pressing money on him, and he had given them more drugs just to get them to go away.
However procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie refused to accept the argument, saying this was an operation “targetted at specific individuals based on intelligence they had”.
Smith stuck to his story, so Sheriff Philip Mann deferred sentence for a hearing to test the evidence on 22 January.
Last month the sheriff said that Smith could expect a jail sentence for the crime.
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