Drugs gang let off in Madrid

By Eloise Horsfield

A LONDONER has been jailed for trafficking amphetamines – while watching his four other alleged gang members get acquitted.

The gang allegedly led a lavish lifestyle with homes in Marbella, Tenerife and Scotland, spending millions on luxury villas, fast cars and yachts.

But after a four year operation only one of the gang, Stephen Brown, 45, was found guilty of trafficking the drug speed between Spain and Scotland.

Brown was handed a six-and-a-half year sentence and an 8,000 euro fine by Madrid’s National Criminal Court.

The court was unable to find alleged ringleader Glaswegian Ronald O’Dea, 45, guilty of running a lucrative drugs empire.

Fellow Scots Mary Durkin Hendry, 61, Ian Donaldson, 32, and James McDonald, 62, were also cleared due to lack of evidence.

Last week the court heard how Donaldson had been arrested in 2009 after police found him hiding in a farm loft in Scotland with a bag stuffed with £70,000.

While the Spanish judge ruled that there was almost certainly clandestine activities between the accused he concluded there was insufficient evidence to convict them.