A FORMER Argyll and Bute Council worker in Helensburgh was caught with drugs worth more than £150,000 in her car.

Drug courier Danielle Finlay was stopped by police in Drumnadrochit in Inverness-shire on January 16.

The High Court in Glasgow was told this week that when police asked if there were any drugs in the Honda Civic she was driving, Finlay replied: “What’s in the car is a long time in jail.”

Drugs with an estimated maximum street value of £151,040 were found in a rucksack on the vehicle’s front passenger seat.

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Finlay, from Hamilton, has been locked up while awaiting sentence.

The 30-year-old worked as a senior area committee assistant with the council.

Her name is still listed on the council's website, along with a Helensburgh phone number, as a contact point for various area committee meetings up till the summer of 2018, though an Argyll and Bute spokesman told the Advertiser she was no longer employed by the authority.

Finlay was part of a seven-strong gang who were caught with drugs worth almost £650,000 in total, the High Court heard on Tuesday.

Kieran Adams, 28, from Clydebank, ran the business along with 31-year-old Glasgow man Stephen Kelly, the court was told.

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Adams and Kelly admitted being involved in the supply of cocaine, heroin and Etizolam between November 2018 and March this year, along with 28-year-old Sean Gordon, from Drumchapel.

Two more men from Glasgow – Donald Dunbar, 61, and 25-year-old Kenneth MacKenzie – pleaded guilty to the same charge, as did 51-year-old Karen Reynolds, also from Glasgow, and 30-year-old Finlay.

The charges were aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime.

Prosecutor Richard Goddard QC told the court: “This case relates to the large scale distribution of drugs to the Inverness area.

“The source of the drugs was Glasgow.”

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The court heard that Adams and Kelly ran the business and used MacKenzie, Dunbar, Finlay and Gordon as couriers.

The gang used Reynolds’ flat in Glasgow to store the drugs.