Alness heroin dealer jailed for 14 months
A YOUNG Alness man who tried to swallow heroin to prevent police getting hold of it has been jailed for 14 months.
Officers stopped 21-year-old Craig Hayden from swallowing the package of powder when they raided his girlfriend’s home at Kirkside.
Appearing for sentence for drug dealing and attempting to pervert the course of justice at Inverness Sheriff Court today, his solicitor Robin White asked for a non-custodial sentence.
He said Hayden was engaged to be married and his partner was a good influence on him.
The offence he said was committed when he was 20 years of age.
But Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood told Hayden: “You chose to go into dealing with a Class A drug with your eyes open and I can see no reason why you should not suffer the full force of the law.”
At a hearing in September the sheriff heard how police exercising a search warrant entered the property. When one of the officers ran upstairs he found Craig Hayden with three packages in his hand struggling with a window blind.
An officer shouted for help and pulled Hayden back on to a bed with the help of a colleague.
A struggle followed. There were three bags of brown powder, and Hayden placed one of the packages in his mouth.
Procurator Fiscal Roderick Urquhart said: “The constables struggled with him and attempted to prevent him swallowing it. It burst. The other two bags also became torn and the contents of all three were partially strewn across the bed, bed frame, bedroom floor and over Hayden and the constables’ faces and clothing.
“Hayden was overpowered, handcuffed, formally made aware of the warrant and cautioned. He subsequently said: ‘I was bullied into it. A quarter ounce is mine. I was bullied into taking the rest. How long will I get for this? What prison will I go to?’”
The fiscal said the brown powder was found to contain diamorphine (heroin) and in total 92 grammes with a potential street value of £8340 were recovered from the property.
Hayden’s mobile phone was also seized and text messages suggested a period of dealing between November 7 to 14 last year.
The raid took place on November 15 and Hayden pleaded guilty to possession of diamorphine with intent to supply and trying to obstruct police officers in execution of their duty.
