Coke accused: I am not the mastermind

Stevenson says jailed dealer headed global drug-smuggling ring

- CONNOR GORDON

A SUSPECT accused of leading a worldwide drug-smuggling ring has from Glasgow identified a jailed cocaine dealer as the real mastermind.

James Stevenson, 59, named John Gurie in his special defence for two charges involving serious organised crime and cocaine at his trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Prosecutors have listed 14 charges between January and September 2020.

A third joint minute of agreed evidence was read to the jury yesterday.

The document says Gurie was jailed for six years in 2020 after police searched his home, van, car and a lock-up garage and found quantities of cocaine, cash and a hydraulic press used to bind adulterated drugs together.