Two businessmen have been jailed for their roles in a £1.5 million mail-order cocaine and ecstasy operation. Ben Terry, 35, and Mark Davidson, 36, were sentenced to more than 18 years combined at the High Court in Kilmarnock on Thursday, September 24.
The pair pleaded guilty to ten charges of being concerned in the supply of drugs between December 2024 and February 2025. Each charge was aggravated by their links to serious underworld organised crime.
Car dealing unit used as front
The court heard how the pair used their car dealing unit in Elgin as a front to distribute cocaine, MDMA, LSD, ketamine, ecstasy and other Class A drugs to customers across the UK.
Prosecutors found the pair working with gangsters in England. They used Telegram accounts to take orders from dealers and users, then packaged the parcels and shipped them by post for next-day delivery. Payments were made either in cash, bank transfer or Bitcoin.
Davidson was the leaseholder for the unit in Moray. The pair were listed as directors of a firm called Eliv8 Details Ltd, which was set up for the maintenance, repair and sale of cars and other cleaning services. The firm never filed accounts.
Cross-agency investigation
Postal activity to and from the unit attracted interest from Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency (NCA). After a cross-agency probe, parcels containing drugs and cash were repeatedly intercepted by Royal Mail, Border Force and police.
NCA officers carried out raids on premises in Tower Place, Elgin, as well as the villages of Garmouth and Mosstodloch in February last year. There, they discovered huge quantities of Class A drugs, including £715,000 of MDMA, £303,000 of cocaine, 47,302 LSD tabs, ketamine, DMT, mephedrone and thousands of diazepam tablets.
The total drugs seized had a combined street value of approximately £1.5 million. Terry, of Dundee, and Davidson, of Moray, were each sentenced to nine years and five months in prison.
Prosecutor's warning
Speaking after sentencing, Procurator Fiscal Sineidin Corrins, of COPFS, said: "This was a coordinated effort to traffic significant quantities of illegal and harmful drugs throughout the UK from the Highlands. These men are now serving lengthy prison sentences thanks to an extensive police operation, working with COPFS and other partners, to investigate a network of drug supply.
"We are targeting all people who threaten communities across Scotland, whatever the methods or schemes organised criminal gangs develop to supply illegal drugs. With each case of this kind, we can help reduce the harm these drugs inflict on those communities."
The pair will be subject to confiscation action under Proceeds of Crime legislation to recover the cash they illegally gained.
