Cocaine courier Christopher Reilly jailed for six years
A man who caught handing over three blocks of cocaine worth about £280,000 has been jailed for six years.
Christopher Reilly, 23, from Glasgow, was seen by police handing over an Asda carrier bag to another man which was later found to have a kilo of the drug.
He denied being involved in the supply of cocaine but was convicted after his fingerprints were found on the bag.
In September last year, Darren Lavery, from Hamilton, was jailed for almost four years over his involvement.
The High Court in Livingston heard how plain-clothes detectives were carrying out surveillance on another suspect in Glasgow in October 2010 when they saw Reilly passing a bag containing the cocaine to another man sitting in the front passenger seat of a parked car.
Traffic Police were asked to intercept the vehicle on the M8, but the driver slowed on the hard shoulder allowing the passenger, Darren Lavery, to flee from the moving vehicle.
He ran up an embankment and threw the rucksack over a hedge.
Police found the dumped bag containing the cocaine and the pursuit continued with Lavery being detained at a nearby Morrisons store.
Reilly was arrested four months later after forensic scientists matched his fingerprints to a set found on the the bag of cocaine.
The 23-year-old denied being concerned in the supply of the drug and lodged a special defence incriminating Lavery but he was convicted by a majority verdict.
Jailing him, judge Lord Boyd told Reilly: "You shouldn't think that merely acting as a courier - if that's what you were - is anything other than a very serious criminal offence.
"You were prepared to become involved at a fairly high level in the chain of supply of a very large quantity of class 'A' drugs - by my reckoning, nearly a kilo."
The court also heard that Reilly had been convicted of two other drugs offences involving cannabis while he was awaiting trial on the cocaine charges.