Former Liverpool nursing home was factory for Scottish drug smuggling
- Published
Builder Mark Quinn had been converting the Liverpool nursing home into flats
A former nursing home in Liverpool was used by a criminal gang as a drugs factory to smuggle millions of pounds of amphetamine into Scotland.
Three consignments worth £8.6m were seized in a 10-month police operation.
A further £2.5m worth of amphetamine was found in a raid at Alder Grange nursing home in March 2014.
At the High Court in Edinburgh Mark Quinn, 58 - who had been converting the property into flats - admitted being involved in the supply of the drugs.
Builder Quinn, from Liverpool, was arrested in the Netherlands last October and extradited to Scotland after six years on the run.
The court heard that in June 2013 police began a surveillance operation against an organised crime group smuggling drugs into Scotland.
Five bin bags
They raided a house in Paisley and recovered 112kg (247lbs) of amphetamine valued at £3m. Quinn's fingerprints were found on two bin bags containing 22 packets of the drug.
In February 2014, in the grounds of the former nursing home, Quinn was spotted hurriedly loading items into a van which was later stopped on the M74 in South Lanarkshire.
The van was carrying five bin bags containing 100kg (220lbs) of amphetamine worth £2.4m.
A month later, Quinn was involved when another car left the nursing home with a £3.2m consignment of amphetamine. It too was stopped heading north on the M74.
The next day police searched the nursing home, which was being renovated. They discovered a drugs factory and amphetamine worth £2.5m.
Police said the gang involved was not only adulterating amphetamine but also producing amphetamine sulphate from amphetamine oil.
'Easy prey'
The High Court was told that this showed "a level of sophistication rarely encountered" and was representative of an established organised crime network at the upper levels of drug trafficking.
A warrant for Quinn's arrest was issued in April 2014. He was taken into custody in Maastricht under a European Arrest Warrant in October 2021.
Quinn's lawyer told the court he had been involved in converting the former nursing home into luxury flats but the £7m development ran into financial trouble.
He said Quinn asked "certain people" for a loan which left him "easy prey."
He had agreed to become involved in the drugs operation to earn money and pay back the loan.
Lord Beckett deferred sentence on Quinn until next month.