Dead body puts police on trail of drugs and guns

Neil McDonald, 39, was sentenced in the Royal Court yesterday, alongside his co-defendant on one of the charges, Jack Falla, who was also sentenced to 18 months in prison.

McDonald, who appeared from custody, and Falla, 31, admitted a joint charge of being concerned in the supply of cannabis, or cannabis resin.

The offence came to light when officers were investigating McDonald on firearm and other drug related offences.

In court, McDonald also admitted being in the possession of two LSD tablets, a shotgun, a sawn-off shotgun and ammunition for the shotgun.

McDonald, who is a grave-digger, was found in possession of bags containing the guns as officers began investigating the disappearance of Mikus Alps.

Prosecution Advocate Rory Calderwood said the shotgun was in a poor state of repair and could only be shot from the hip, while the sawn-off firearm could not be fired in isolation.

Officers went to McDonald’s address on Wednesday 10 January at 6pm. They wanted to speak to him about Mr Alps.

‘He appeared evasive and gave misleading information,’ said Advocate Calderwood.

At first, McDonald said he had not spoken to Mr Alps since the evening of the previous Sunday.

But when officers told him they had found an unidentified body, it was obvious McDonald was becoming cautious about what he was saying. The officer then told McDonald they had evidence of Mr Alps speaking with him in the early hours of 8 January.

McDonald then said he had a call at 2.30am on the 8th from Mr Alps, who had asked him to go to his lock-up at Pleinmont and collect two bags. He did as he was asked and got home around 3pm.

McDonald then led officers to the two bags that were in the back of a car. He agreed to get the bags because he was ‘helping a mate out’ and Mr Alps told him ‘they were clean’, he told police.

He had not looked in the bags and had no idea what was in them.

Once the items were discovered, he was arrested and taken to the police station.

In interview, he said he knew Mr Alps was involved in some ‘dark things’, including being involved in the Ukrainian military.

Mr Alps had earlier confided in him that he thought he was being followed and that he might spend some time away.

He had given Mr Alps £500 in cash.

McDonald told officers that he did not question what was in the bags because it was on a need-to-know basis.

He did not want to know.

‘It was obvious it had metal in it,’ he told officers. But he ‘thought it was all right’.

McDonald said when he heard nothing from Mr Alps, he had approached his friend’s mother to drop the bags off.

A total of 17.39g of cannabis resin was found at McDonald’s address. When officers seized his phone, a trail of messages between him and Falla about the supply of drugs was found.

The pair were talking about 150g of cannabis resin being bought from a supplier and there were various messages from Falla chasing up payment, saying the supplier was chasing him. Falla had also said he needed the money to buy Christmas presents. The figure of £2,500 was mentioned in the messages, which Advocate Calderwood said was consistent with 150g of cannabis resin.

The street price for the drugs would have been between £3,000 to £4,500 but the supplier price would have been lower.

There was no separate possession charge as it was accepted that the 17.39g of resin found was part of the original 150g.

Advocate Peter Ferbrache, representing McDonald, said his client had picked up the bags for his friend. He felt he owed Mr Alps for helping him previously when he was serving a driving disqualification.

His guilty plea was on the basis that he was in possession of the items, however, he did not know he was.

‘He wouldn’t have touched it with the proverbial barge pole if he knew what was in there,’ said Advocate Ferbrache.

His client did not accept that he was evasive. He had been worried about Mr Alps when it became known that no one had heard from him. Previously, Mr Alps had handed over some files, which he now believed to have contained a suicide note, however that was contested by the prosecution.

Advocate Ferbrache added that the prosecution were not originally going to accept McDonald’s case regarding knowledge, however, they subsequently did so. If they had accepted that basis of plea earlier, his client might not have served such a long time on remand in prison. He had been on remand since the day of his arrest in January.

McDonald, he said, had suffered family bereavement during his time on remand. His sister had died after taking an over-dose and her husband had died just a few weeks later.

The case had had a major impact on his family, Advocate Ferbrache added.

In relation to the cannabis supply charge, he said Falla had initiated it.

Advocate Mark Dunster, representing Falla, pointed out that his client faced only one charge, which was a totally separate case to the firearms one.

He said there was only a modest profit to be made from the cannabis supply and £500 of that had been given to Mr Alps by McDonald. His client had not made any money from it.

The prosecution had been clear, Advocate Dunster said, that it was Falla’s admissions in interview that had led to their prosecution of the offence.

He read out a letter from Falla’s doctor, who said he was suffering from depression at the time of the offences and was on medication for a back problem. Falla was also going through a legal dispute with his own mother over his inheritance. At the time of the offences, his client was at a very low and vulnerable point of his life.

BLOB The pair were both sentenced to 18 months on the cannabis supply charge. McDonald was given concurrent sentences of one month for the LSD, six months for the shotgun, two months for the sawn-off shotgun and two months for the ammunition charges.