Clydebank trafficker jailed following cocaine in cardboard scheme
42-year-old Vincent Dolan was caught last October
A Clydebank man who used his former South American cellmate to help smuggle cocaine into Scotland has been jailed.
Vincent Dolan was caught after a plot to soak packs of cardboard with the drug was busted by police.
Officers swooped when they became suspicious of deliveries being made to a house in the town in West Dunbartonshire.
Dolan had been waiting for a shipment last October but, instead, an undercover officer turned up posing as a Parcel Force driver.
A judge was told how the expected haul of drugs had earlier been intercepted and swapped with a bogus package.
Dolan was today/yesterday locked up for five years and three months after he pled guilty to importing and being concerned in the supply of cocaine.
The High Court in Glasgow was told the 42 year-old had previously been jailed in Italy and Spain for drug crimes.
His lawyer said he may resemble an “international criminal” - but, in reality, was “incompetent”.
A hearing was earlier told how Border Force Officers intercepted a package for an address in Clydebank.
It consisted of sheets of card with a substance – later found to be cocaine – concealed into the layers.
The National Crime Agency were then alerted to the discovery.
Prosecutor Gordon Lamont said the cards “impregnated with cocaine” were replaced with what was described as a “placebo”.
The officer posing as a delivery driver then turned up with the now fake package at the address in Clydebank days later.
The court heard it was Dolan who answered the door.
Cheeky Dolan even smiled as he unwittingly asked the officer “if the parcel was heavy”.
He was later held by police after he was clocked leaving while carrying a plastic bag and rucksack.
Inside the carrier bag was the bogus delivery – which replaced the real parcel of drugs worth £77,000.
The rucksack held another £30,000 package of cocaine.
Mr Lamont said his phones had a number of Brazil based contacts.
The court heard Dolan was sentenced to six years in Spain in 2006 and three years in 2013 in Italy for drug offences.
Ronnie Renucci, defending, said “It may seem he is an international master criminal, but that is far from the truth.
“Incompetent is the one word I would use. Every time he appears to do something, he gets caught.”
The lawyer added Dolan got into bother on returning to Scotland after owing money to criminals.
Mr Renucci: “He was trying to pay it back and took the easy option.
“He got in touch with a contact abroad. This was someone he had shared a cell with while in Italy.
“He asked for drugs to be sent over. It was his intention to pass the drugs to those he owed money to.
“It was hoped this would extinguish the debt, but it was an enterprise that was stopped when the goods entered the country."