Tackling Threat, Harm and Risk

Significant arrests

A 39-year-old man has been arrested and charged by detectives investigating the disappearance of Khasha Smith. Khasha, aged 35, of Edinburgh, was last seen to be safe and well on a FaceTime call on Tuesday, 10 October, 2023. Following extensive enquiries, Khasha is believed to be dead however her body is yet to be found.

A 52-year-old man was arrested in connection with the death of a woman in Glasgow at the end of last month. On Monday, 26 August, 2024, officers were called to a property in Elmvale Street, Glasgow. Brodie MacGregor was found within and pronounced dead at the scene.

Significant court outcomes

Sexual offending

Since the last meeting of the Scottish Police Authority Board, Police Scotland investigations have resulted in a number of significant court outcomes including -

• Connor Hagley, 26, was jailed for eight years for serious sexual offences in Edinburgh.
• Jamie Wilson, 34, was sentenced to more than nine years for violent and sexual offences against women in the Edinburgh and Midlothian between 2015 and 2022.
• Russell Gray, 63, was jailed for 11 years after being convicted of sexual offences in the Tayside and Fife.
• Sam Brown, 20, was jailed for seven years in connection with a series of serious sexual offences in Edinburgh, including the rape of four girls between March and December 2022.
• George McDonald, 43, was sentenced to 10 years in prison at the High Court in Edinburgh after being convicted of sexual and violent offences against three women in the Argyll and Bute area between 1998 and 2021.
• Lee Murray, 53, was jailed for five years after raping and sexually assaulting a young girl in the Inverness area between January 2021 and October 2022.

Human trafficking

Mananchaya Wanitthanawet, 40 and Cameron Wilson, 30, were convicted at the High Court in Dundee on Thursday, 22 August, 2024 for human trafficking offences in Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness and Edinburgh offences which took place between November, 2019 and December, 2020.  They will be sentenced at a later date.

Terrorism and firearms

On Monday, 16 September, Alan Edward, 54, was convicted in connection with terrorism and firearms offences after officers seized weapons from his home in Falkirk in September 2022.

An investigation by officers from Police Scotland’s Counter Terrorism Unit also found he posted and shared videos, memes and images online of a racist, homophobic and violent nature, including information associated with extreme right wing groups.

Serious and organised crime

At the end of August, James Stevenson, David Bilsland, Paul Bowes, Gerard Carbin, Ryan McPhee, and Lloyd Cross were convicted of serious organised crime and drug offences after they admitted conspiring to flood Scotland with cocaine with an estimated value of £100m which was smuggled to the UK from South America.

The convictions followed a joint operation by Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency (NCA) during which 119 packages of the Class A drug, weighing a tonne, were discovered within a consignment of bananas on a vessel from Ecuador. Searches were subsequently carried out at properties in Scotland and England and the men, aged between 32 and 68, were identified.

The multi-agency operation, including the National Crime Agency, prevented a significant quantity of drugs reaching our communities across Scotland and ruining lives. It underlines the value of working in partnership with our law enforcement colleagues in this country and abroad.

On Friday, 6 September, three men were jailed for a total of over 13 years in connection with serious and organised crime and drugs offences in Ayrshire and Glasgow. Alan Stewart, 44, was sentenced to five years and four months imprisonment while Matthew Cullimore, 37, and Leslie Montgomery, 64, were each sentenced to four years and four months in prison having previously pleaded guilty.

The sentencing comes after officers from Police Scotland’s Specialist Crime Division, supported by officers from the Operational Support Division, Ayrshire Division and Greater Glasgow Division, executed warrants at seven properties in Kilmarnock, Irvine and Glasgow in October last year recovering drugs, including cocaine and amphetamine with an estimated value of around £208,000. Officers also seized over £211,000 cash.

Drugs recoveries

Officers act every day, right across Scotland, to disrupt the supply of illegal drugs and since the last meeting of the Scottish Police Authority Board, this included -

• Drugs, including cocaine and cannabis, with an estimated street value of around £60,000 were recovered along with a number of firearms at an address in Glasgow on Sunday, 25 August. Firearms and ammunition were also seized and a 29-year-old man was arrested and charged.
• Three people were arrested and charged following the discovery of a cannabis cultivation with an estimated value of more than £200,000 in Glasgow on Wednesday, 28 August, 2024. A 30-year-old woman and two men, aged 29 and 34, were arrested and charged in connection.
• On Thursday, 29 August, drugs with an estimated street value of over £490,000 were recovered at an address in Buckie. A 36-year-old man was arrested and charged.
• On Friday, 30 August, 2024, two men, aged 33 and 18, were arrested and charged following the discovery of a cannabis cultivation with an estimated value of more than £379,000 in Coatbridge.