Man caught with £1.2 million of cocaine jailed

Anwar Rahim was sentenced to 66 months at the High Court in Glasgow today

Author: Clyde NewsPublished 13th Sep 2019

A drug courier who transported cocaine with a maximum street value of £1.2 million from England to Glasgow was today jailed for five and a half years.

Anwar Rahim, 38, a dad-of-three from Liverpool, was caught after police received a tip-off and carried out a surveillance operation on June 8, 2016.

Rahim and his former co-accused Stephen Anderson drove in separate cars to the Nethercraigs Sports Complex in Corkerhill Road, Glasgow.

Anderson left his car and went into Rahim's vehicle, removed a black holdall and drove off.

He was later stopped by police and the bag was found containing six one kilogram bags of cocaine.

Surveillance continued on Rahim and he was seen to drive to Ikea car park at Braehead when another former co-accused Derek Gailey joined him.

Rahim opened the boot of Gailey's car and removed a black holdall which contained £117,390 in cash.

At the High Court in Glasgow Rahim admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine on June 8, 2016.

He also admitted failing to appear at the High Court. He was finally arrested on a European arrest warrant in Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands on April 9, 2019.

Prosecutor Kath Harper said: “On the morning of June 8, 2016 authority was granted for directed surveillance to be carried out on Mr Rahim.

“Police found that the holdall which had been in his vehicle contained six one kilo bags of cocaine which were 80 per cent pure. The average purity of cocaine in the West of Scotland is 16 per cent.”

Solicitor advocate Graham Brown said: “Mr Rahim became unemployed and lost his business and was doing odd jobs.

“He was asked to drive to Glasgow and did not ask a lot of questions. He did not know that drugs were involved until some way into the journey. When he spoke with his employers. He was just a courier, a very small cog.”

Judge Lord Beckett said: “Mr Rahim this serious crime does seem to be out of character for you.

“In a letter to the court you speak of your shame and contrition, however this is a matter you brought on yourself and you made matters worse by not appearing for a court hearing. It was two years later you were arrested.”

Both Anderson and Gailey were both sentenced to 54 months at an earlier court hearing.

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