A drugs factory in Paisley once churned out 250,000 'street Valium' tablets per hour, and it is believed the gang produced at least 20 million tablets before police stopped the operation. When cops raided the premises in March 2017, they recovered 1.6 million etizolam-laced tablets ready to be dispatched to crime gangs in Glasgow, Inverclyde, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Dundee.
After the bust, Police Scotland said it was the biggest ever drugs manufacturing operation on Scottish soil. Cops also discovered 313,000 nitrazolam tablets, along with 24kgs of powder and seven litres of liquid etizolam ready to be put in the mix.
Sophisticated operation compared to TV show
A source close to the case stated that the gang produced at least 20 million tablets before cops put a stop to the operation. They said: “What was found at Back Sneddon Street in Paisley was very reminiscent of Breaking Bad. Harry Ingle would be the Walter White character, with Reid and McGaw adding money and know-how. A highly sophisticated operation was being run, with full chemistry applied and machinery that could pump out 250,000 pills an hour. They were caught with about two million pills in March 2017 but by this time they had been up and running for almost three years. It’s impossible to tell how many pills they produced but it would be reasonable to say more than 20million.”
Eric Reid, 45, and Scott McGaw, 33, were pinpointed as ringleaders of the operation and were put on trial at the High Court in Glasgow in November 2018. The court heard Londoner Harry Ingle, 40, mixed the chemicals and operated the rotary pill press, along with Nicholas Conway, 44, and both were caught at the factory, covered in blue dust and operating the press.
Sentences handed down at Glasgow High Court
They admitted to supplying etizolam between February and March 2017, and Ingle’s brother Thomas was acquitted on a not guilty plea. Reid and McGaw were found guilty of charges related to the production of etizolam pills between May 2016 and March 2017. At sentencing, judge Lord Burns jailed McGaw for five years and Reid for five-and-a-half years. Ingle was also given a five-and-a-half-year sentence, while Conway was jailed for three years.
Detective Chief Inspector Fil Capaldi said the industrial-scale production was likely to be supplying gangsters further afield. He continued: “It’s the biggest drug manufacturing factory we have seen by a long way in terms of the production of tablets. This was the second large pill press we’ve seized, meaning another large-scale production line was halted. We have other inquiries ongoing and continue to make this a priority.”
Bogus company and 'money man' role
Reid was cleared of running another drugs factory, with a similar pill press, at a trial last month. He was also found unconscious at the wheel of his £70,000 BMW after being overcome by etizolam fumes while being involved in the “industrial manufacture” of the pills while they were legal. Reid set up a bogus company – the Vitamin and Supplements Co – with Harry Ingle in 2014, to import etizolam and other drugs materials from China. Scores of FedEx deliveries were sent to his legitimate business – Reid’s of Paisley garage on Underwood Road, which was set up by his late father.
McGaw, dubbed the “money man” by prosecutor Jane Farquharson QC, was the boss of the Scottish franchise of the Vinci hair clinic. During the trial, the court heard he had contacts in China to get supplies for making the drugs. WhatsApp messages sent by McGaw linked him to Harry Ingle and Reid. Despite the fact McGaw left no DNA at the drugs factory, CCTV images showed him walking into the unit then leaving 10 hours later wearing a Breaking Bad-style lab suit.
Speaking about Reid and McGaw, Ms Farquharson said: “In illegal activity, you can see that the people at the top of the chain will get others to do their dirty work for them and that’s the role these two played in the production of these etizolam tablets.” She added: “The pill press found on the premises was capable of producing a quarter of a million tablets an hour. This was a sophisticated business. The premises were heavy duty and operating on a large scale. In 2016, Reid and McGaw were not prepared to walk away from that.”
