Man jailed over Liverpool nursing home drugs factory
- Published
Mark Quinn was arrested in the Netherlands after becoming one of the UK's most wanted fugitives
A man arrested after a former nursing home was turned into a drugs factory has been jailed for seven years.
Mark Quinn was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow for his role in smuggling millions of pounds of amphetamine from the factory in Liverpool to Scotland.
The 58-year-old was extradited from the Netherlands in 2021 after seven years on the run.
He pled guilty in July to being concerned in the supply of amphetamine.
Quinn, a former builder and boxing coach, was told by Lord Beckett during his sentencing: "This was drug dealing on a grand scale aggravated by a connection with serious and organised crime.
"Your involvement was associated with seizures of large quantities of amphetamine on four occasions.
"This involved hundreds of kilogrammes of the drug in total with potential amount in excess of £10m."
Quinn's guilty plea meant his sentence was reduced from nine to seven years.
Operation Kapuas
In June 2013 police began a surveillance operation, named Operation Kapuas, against an organised crime group smuggling drugs into Scotland.
Three consignments of amphetamine 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.
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, from Liverpool, asked "certain people" for a loan which left him "easy prey".
Mark Quinn was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow
Officers raided a house in Paisley, Renfrewshire, 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.
European Arrest Warrant
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 not only adulterated amphetamine but also produced amphetamine sulphate from amphetamine oil.
An arrest warrant for Quinn was originally issued in 2014. This was upgraded to a European Arrest Warrant the following year.
The authorities even used a van with his face plastered on the side in Spain's Costa del Sol in a bid to trace him.
Quinn was arrested last year in Maastricht.
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- Published21 July 2022
