Man jailed for smuggling £1.2m of strong cocaine to Glasgow

A man who smuggled a £1.2m haul of strong cocaine from England to Glasgow has been jailed for more than five years.

Anwar Rahim, 38, from Liverpool, drove to Nethercraigs Sports Complex on Corkerhill Road with six 1kg (2lb) bags of the drug in his car.

He was arrested after police received a tip-off and carried out surveillance.

Rahim admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine on 8 June 2016 as well as failing to appear in court.

Rahim and his former co-accused Stephen Anderson drove in separate cars to the sports centre.

Anderson left his car, removed a black holdall from Rahim's vehicle and drove off - officers later stopped Anderson and discovered the bag contained six 1kg bags of cocaine.

Prosecutor Kath Harper said: "Police found that the holdall which had been in his vehicle contained six 1kg bags of cocaine which were 80%. The average purity of cocaine in the west of Scotland is 16%."

Surveillance continued on Rahim who drove to Ikea car park at Braehead when another former co-accused, Derek Gailey, joined him.

Rahim opened the boot of Gailey's car and removed a black holdall which contained £117,390 in cash.

He was finally arrested on a European arrest warrant in Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands on 9 April 2019.

Solicitor advocate Graham Brown said: "Mr Rahim became unemployed and lost his business and was doing odd jobs.

"He was asked to drive to Glasgow and did not ask a lot of questions. He did not know that drugs were involved until some way into the journey. When he spoke with his employers. He was just a courier, a very small cog."

At the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lord Beckett said: "Mr Rahim this serious crime does seem to be out of character for you.

"In a letter to the court you speak of your shame and contrition, however this is a matter you brought on yourself and you made matters worse by not appearing for a court hearing. It was two years later you were arrested."

Anderson and Gailey were both jailed for four years and six months at an earlier court hearing.