Jail term 'inevitable' for Alloa ecstasy dealer

A drug dealer was caught with enough ingredients to produce more than £2m worth of ecstasy, a court was told.

Connor Smith, 25, was caught by detectives investigating who was supplying dealers in central Scotland.

Police raided a property in Clackmannanshire and found a pill press, ecstasy in powder form, and 65kg (143lb) of a bulking agent.

Smith admitted being involved in the supply of ecstasy and was told by a sheriff a jail term was "inevitable".

He will be sentenced on 13 February.

Police established that the bulking agent had the potential to make 234,000 tablets with a street value of £2.34m.

The offences took places at addresses in Alloa between July 2017 and October 2018.

Prosecution lawyer Liam Ewing told the High Court in Edinburgh that officers raided a house in Clackmannanshire and detained an individual who was not named in court.

They found a pill press and MDMA powder that would have a street value of £60,000 if it was made into tablets.

Mr Ewing told the court that the person who was detained by police identified Smith as the owner of the pill press.

He said: "The accused was interviewed under caution and initially answered no comment to all questions.

"However, he thereafter admitted that he had purchased the pill press recovered from the Clackmannanshire address and he had been producing ecstasy tablets using it."

Judge Lord Pentland remanded Smith in custody ahead of sentencing.

He said: "It is inevitable that I will impose a custodial sentence on you."