Morag Yorston, a Dundee grandmother convicted of running a secret heroin empire from her home, has been jailed for five years and 11 months after she fled to Bulgaria with her toyboy lover to evade sentencing. Police Scotland caught up with her nearly a year after she went on the run, following an extradition process that was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Operation Boost targets Dundee drugs network
Yorston first came to police attention in 2018. Operation Boost, a joint drug enforcement investigation led by Police Scotland and the Organised Crime Unit to tackle Class A drug crime in Tayside, identified her as a significant player in Dundee's drugs underworld. Raids on her plush apartment and a property on Balunie Drive, from which she ran her empire, gave detectives the evidence they needed.
Then aged 55, Yorston admitted her part in the supply and distribution of drugs in Dundee in 2019. However, she failed to show up for her sentencing hearing at the High Court in Glasgow in September 2019, going on the run.
Flight to Bulgaria and extradition
At the time, Yorston was in a relationship with Daniel Nenchev, a Bulgarian national several years her junior. Police found no evidence to suggest Nenchev was involved in her criminal enterprise. The pair hid in Bulgaria for months, and it took nearly a year for justice to catch up with her.
Police tracked her down to Bulgaria, but arresting her was not simple. They had to apply for a European Arrest Warrant, which Bulgarian police executed in March 2020. At the height of Covid-19 lockdowns, it took another four months to complete the extradition process, and she was brought back to Scotland on July 2, 2020.
Sentencing and police reaction
Yorston appeared at the High Court in Glasgow almost exactly a year after her original sentencing date, where a judge locked her up for five years and 11 months. She was one of 17 people arrested during the police operation into the supply of Class A controlled drugs by organised criminals in the city.
Between July and October 2018, the initiative saw officers seize approximately 6 kilograms of heroin and a kilogram of cocaine, with a combined street value of over £380,000, as well as £12,000 in cash. After the sentencing, Detective Chief Inspector Scott Fotheringham said: "Operation Boost was a complex and protracted investigation which identified Yorston of playing a significant role in an organised crime group intent in bringing misery to our communities."
Chief Inspector David McIntosh, Area Commander for Tayside Division, added: "The success of Operation Boost and the sentencing of Yorston shows our unwavering commitment to targeting serious organised criminals in Tayside and disrupting their activities, to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities."
