Jail for NI drugs terror gang

Jail for NI drugs terror gang

Gang members are driven away

Six men from Belfast have been jailed for drug dealing and conducting a reign of terror on a housing estate in Edinburgh.

The judge at the High Court in Glasgow handed out sentences totalling more than 60 years to the gang, who sought to terrify local people.

The leader of the gang, David McLeave, 26, was found guilty of serious assault and drug dealing and was sentenced to 14 years.

His offences included serious assault, abductions and the use of weapons including a cosh, a wheel brace, a hammer and a piece of wood.

Thomas Irvine, 20, was jailed for 10 years and six months; 23-year-old Edward Lindsay got 10 years; Lee Kinghan, 21, also got 10 years and brothers Barry, 21, and Paul Campbell, 20, were jailed for six years and 10 years respectively.

The lives of many people were adversely affected by the activities by this gang from Northern Ireland

Lord Hardie

Two offences were "sadistic assaults" which involved stripping and burning victims who were unconscious through drugs.

Four others were sentenced to 10 years and the remaining gang member got six years.

For 18 months the group controlled drug dealing in the Calders area of west Edinburgh.

They claimed to be attached to the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force and used extreme violence to protect their drug turf.

A police investigation has never found any links with Northern Ireland paramilitaries.

McLeave was the ringleader

The trial judge, Lord Hardie, said he was issuing substantial sentences because the case demonstrated the evils associated with illegal drug dealing.

He also paid tribute to people who stood up to the gang.

Lord Hardie said: "The lives of many people were adversely affected by the activities by this gang from Northern Ireland who sought to control the drugs trade in the Calders area and, in doing so, to take over the lives and homes of people who lived there.

"The success of this prosecution in bringing each of the accused to justice is a tribute to those members of the community, who, despite their own personal difficulties and, no doubt, apprehension for their own safety, assisted the police and had the courage to testify against the accused.

"I accept that many of the witnesses had drug problems before their involvement but that may have made it all the more difficult for them to come forward."

Loyalist graffiti

He called on other communities affected by the scourge of drugs to "take similar action".

The judge also dismissed a plea of mitigation from a lawyer for one of the accused who said his client had grown up amid sectarian violence in Belfast.

"The vast majority of people in Northern Ireland lead decent, honourable law-abiding lives," said Lord Hardie.

During their trial at the High Court in Dunfermline, the jury heard how the gang marked out their "territory" using loyalist graffiti.

They also sought to convince people of their bogus past by carrying out paramilitary-style beatings.

Scottish police officers worked with their colleagues in Northern Ireland in their successful targeting of the gang.