Members of a serious organised crime gang involved in drugs, firearms trafficking and torture have been jailed.
The judge, Lord Beckett, said that police had uncovered “sophisticated, serious, and organised crime” involving an “arsenal of deadly weapons”.
The High Court in Glasgow was told that the gang imported huge quantities of class A drugs, acting as wholesalers to other dealers.
Prosecutors previously told how the group was at the “top of the chain” for drug transactions in the UK but defence lawyers said that the “powers behind this” were not in the dock.
Nine men had pleaded guilty to charges involving serious criminal activity, including firearms, drug dealing and violence from 2013 to 2017.
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The gang would package and hide large sums of cash for taking to senior group members, who were involved in firearms trafficking to enforce their operations and were connected to the assault of a drug dealer and shots being fired at an Edinburgh home.
Lord Beckett said: “There’s no doubt the police uncovered the workings of sophisticated, serious and organised crime.” He praised the “ingenuity and courage” of officers who, during months of surveillance, found that the gang would use vehicles and industrial premises let under false names and addresses. Officers eventually seized more than 1,000 items including encrypted mobile phones, counter-surveillance equipment, automatic pistols, machineguns, a grenade and about £1.6 million in cash.
David Sell, 50, was given the longest sentence of 15 years and eight months after admitting being involved in the abduction, although his lawyer stressed his limited involvement in the incident.
The court was told that the victim had agreed to a drug deal but later, in debt to the group, fled to England where he was traced, seriously assaulted, chained up, put in a van and driven back to Scotland. There he was punched, kicked, whipped with a chain, hit with a sledgehammer, sprayed with bleach and shot three times in the knees before being found by members of the public after being pushed down a hill.
Lord Beckett said that while Sell was not physically involved in the worst acts of violence he facilitated “brutal and merciless torture”.
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He jailed Anthony Woods, 44, for 11 years and one month, Francis Mulligan, 41, for nine years and Michael Bowman, 30, for seven years, saying that they were involved in organising vehicles and premises for “organised crime on a grand scale”, with the former two possessing an “arsenal of deadly weapons”.
Donald Findlay, QC, representing Mulligan, told the court: “Those who were the powers behind this and the organisers and those who would principally benefit are not here”, a position echoed by Woods’ lawyer.
Gerard Docherty, 42, who fired shots with a sub-machinegun at a home in Ratho, west of Edinburgh, and was said by his lawyer to be “totally out of his depth”, was jailed for ten years and six months.
Martyn Fitzsimmons, 37, a former soldier was out on licence for a 12-year sentence in England for procuring explosives and weapons on the day he was found in possession of a semi-automatic weapon, ammunition and £36,000. He was sentenced to 10 years and six months.
Barry O’Neill, 37, was jailed for seven years and four months for his involvement in drug trafficking. Mark Richardson, 30, was sentenced to eight years and nine months for having a Glock handgun. Steven McArdle, 33, who had a semi-automatic weapon, was jailed for seven years and 100 days.