Five members of a criminal gang who ran a drugs operation from a housing estate have been jailed for a total of more than 31 years after being busted in an encrypted phone sting. Ringleader Lee Docherty, 37, his right-hand man and brother-in-law Ian Millar, 39, Brendan Gillan, 32, his father Daniel Gillan, 60, and Christopher McKellar, 44, traded in drugs worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The High Court in Glasgow heard how the gang controlled the sale and supply of class A drugs, including cocaine, heroin, cannabis and etizolam, from a 'heavily-fortified' property in a Larkfield housing estate in Greenock, Inverclyde. Their operation was foiled after French authorities intercepted encrypted messages on the EncroChat platform, a communication network favoured by criminals, and passed them on to Police Scotland. The court heard one message referred to valium pills with a street value of more than £700,000