Crack cocaine supplier given long jail sentence

A crack cocaine supplier who came to Shetland to sell the drug in return for heroin was jailed for over four years at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

Jason Headech, 37, a prisoner in Aberdeen who had visited from the south of England, was caught after the police saw his car late at night at Sound Brae on 16th September.

Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie said there was a wealth of intelligence about the vehicle. When he was stopped and searched a rock of crack fell from his trouser leg. He was strip-searched at the police station and two rocks of crack were found between his buttocks.

The court heard Headech was belligerent and defiant throughout his interview by officers, answering all questions with “no comment”. The 21.44 grams of crack cocaine he possessed had a value of about £1,500 in the south of England but in Shetland, where it is still a relatively rare drug, it was worth around £2,600, Mr MacKenzie said.

Headech had no connection with Shetland whatsoever other than coming here to do what the procurator fiscal dubbed “quasi-business”.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said Headech had acted as a courier rather than a dealer. His life had been governed by drugs, which he had become addicted to in prison. But he was now sick of them. He said his client was now clean, having come off heroin over the past two months while remanded in custody.

“By his own admission he is just getting too old for this sort of behaviour,” Mr Allan said, having told the court that Headech was about to become a grandfather and felt he was spending too much of his life in jail. He served four years for burglary.

Sentencing him to 50 months in jail, Sheriff Graeme Napier said crack was a particularly addictive drug. The sentence was backdated to 15th September, when Headech was first remanded in custody.