Drug dealer jailed over £144k haul

A DRUG courier caught with heroin worth up to £144,000 on the streets has been jailed for four and a half years.

Barry Dullaghan tried to flee from police as they moved in after he was seen getting out of a taxi in Edinburgh's Ferry Road, but officers chased and detained him. They found nearly one and a half kilos of heroin in a rucksack during a search.

Dullaghan, 22, of Smeaton Avenue, Torrance, Glasgow, had been released early from a previous 28-month prison term for offences including assault and was on licence at the time of the latest crime.

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh ordered that he should serve eight months of the unexpired part of the earlier sentence before he starts his latest jail term.

Lord Hardie told him: "You have an unenviable record, mainly for crimes of violence. In this case you were apprehended when you attempted to run away and were effectively caught red-handed."

"It is said you yourself had incurred debts in relation to drugs so I don't imagine it is necessary to tell you what the effects of the abuse of controlled drugs are in our society," he added.