Edinburgh drug dealer jailed for eight years
- Published
A drug dealer has been jailed following a long-running operation by Lothian and Borders Police to tackle serious organised crime.
Bernard Flanagan, 24, was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in cocaine supply across the capital.
Police said Flanagan was responsible for the distribution of cocaine on an industrial scale.
After 12 months of surveillance, detectives seized more than 17kg of the drug, which had a street value of £1m.
Flanagan, who had links to serious organised crime groups in the south side of Edinburgh, was also found to have associates within various other criminal fraternities in the west of Scotland and north west England.
'Blighting communities'
A number of Flanagan's Edinburgh drug-runners have already been jailed for their role in the city's drugs trade.
Det Supt Bruce Ormiston, of Lothian and Borders Police, said: "This investigation was designed to target those who were blighting a community with their actions.
"The arrests of those individuals and their subsequent sentencing has shown that Lothian and Borders Police and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will not tolerate a minority of people bringing misery to the lives of others and that, through partnership working, that minority will be brought to justice."
He added that police relied on information from people living in the affected communities.
"That was the case with this operation and I believe it has sent out a clear message to anyone engaging in criminality that they can and will be caught," he said.