Drug courier jailed for five years for transporting cocaine to Scotland

Police and prosecutors have welcomed the sentencing of a drug courier convicted of transporting almost £3.5 million worth of cocaine into Scotland.

Today, Wednesday, 21 April 2021, at the High Court in Edinburgh, Robert Clifford (54), who is also known as Robert Stewart, was sentenced to five years in prison, after he was caught with around 65 kilograms of the Class A drug, with a street value of £3.354 million, in the HGV lorry he was driving.

He had been seen putting two cases into the lorry in the Kensington area of London and was arrested by Police Scotland officers at Hamilton Services in Lanarkshire on 28 May last year.

His arrest came during Operation Venetic - the most significant ever UK operation into serious and organised crime involving Police Scotland, the National Crime Agency and police forces across the UK - which resulted in the takedown of Encrochat, an encrypted global communication service used almost exclusively by criminals.

Detective Chief Superintendent Stuart Houston, Police Scotland's Head of Organised Crime, said:

"Keeping our communities safe and free from the nefarious activities of organised criminals remains an absolute priority for Police Scotland and I welcome the conviction and sentencing of Clifford.

"Officers work tirelessly to disrupt these activities and the intelligence-led operations, undertaken with our policing and law enforcement partners, led to some of the largest seizures of drugs made in Scotland. We continue to work closely with our UK and European law enforcement partners, underlining our determination to target those involved."

Jennifer Harrower, Procurator Fiscal for Specialist Casework, said:

“Drugs do great harm to communities across Scotland and with each case of this kind we can help reduce that harm.

“It is thanks to intelligence that we were able to stop these drugs from reaching Scotland’s streets, and this kind of operation is invaluable to us as prosecutors working with our partners.

“We will continue to work as a key part of the Serious and Organised Crime Taskforce to protect those communities.”

Gerry McLean, NCA Regional Head of Investigations for Scotland said:

“Robert Clifford foolishly thought that he could use Encrochat to fly under the radar when transporting vast quantities of cocaine. He had no consideration of the devastating effects that these drugs could have, and the violence and exploitation that they bring to Scottish communities.

“Removing Clifford from the chain will have dealt a serious blow to the criminal networks he worked for, and we are determined to work with law enforcement partners in Scotland to tackle all forms of organised criminality. We will be relentless in out pursuit of those involved.”

Clifford pled guilty to the charges when he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh on 15 March 2021.