A MAN caught with almost £31,000 worth of cocaine stashed in the roof of his car has been jailed for 40 months.
Ryan Moore, 20, and his passenger Terence Carlin, 19, were stopped in Edinburgh's Peffermill Road by police acting on a tip-off last September.
Officers found bags of cocaine hidden in a space under the roof-rack and two knives in the front-seat p
assenger footwell.
The court heard Moore – who has been in custody since his arrest – had a £1400-a-week cocaine habit and claimed he had been asked to look after the drugs by a dealer to pay off drug debts.
He pleaded guilty earlier this month to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, which had a potential street value of almost £30,994.
At Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday, Sheriff Kenneth Maciver told Moore said: "This is a difficult case and a somewhat sad case because you are both so young."
But he added that custody was the only appropriate sentence "for involvement to this level in drug trafficking".
Both men – whose addresses were given as Edinburgh Prison – were on bail when they were stopped on September 28, 2007.
Carlin, a scaffolder, denied all knowledge of the drugs but pleaded guilty to possessing the five-inch bladed knives – which Sheriff Maciver described as "one of the nastiest weapons I have seen".
Jailing Carlin for ten months, Sheriff Maciver said: "You have a previous conviction for possessing a knife and were fined £1000 but that did not deter you."
Defence agent Vincent Belmonte said Moore told police he would be shot if he revealed the identity of the dealer.
The full article contains 285 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
