MAN AVOIDS JAIL AFTER £14,000 OF DRUGS FOUND IN CAR WITH LAMB

John McNeil has avoided jail after he and Lindsey Sangster were convicted of drugs offences. Police stopped Sangster's Volkswagen Golf on the M74 in Glasgow on 22 April 2023, with McNeil as a passenger. A police dog found bags of heroin and cocaine under the front passenger seat. In the back seat was a lamb named Pablo, after drug lord Pablo Escobar, eating chips from a bag. Sergeant Nick Twigg said McNeil claimed Sangster was a "trainee shepherdess." McNeil and Sangster were found guilty in September of possessing cocaine and diamorphine with intent to supply.

A police dog named Billy found £4,640 of cocaine and £10,050 of heroin beneath the seat. Cocaine purity was recorded at no less than 76%. A glass pipe was found in the driver's door pocket, and further pipes were seized from McNeil and a third man in the car. A joint minute of agreed evidence said the quantities recovered were "excessive for personal use," indicating the drugs were for supply rather than personal possession. McNeil and Sangster told the court they had tried to rescue Pablo from a "dangerous position" in the middle of the road.

Pablo belonged to North Lanrigg Farm in Motherwell, owned by farmer Kirsty Mair, who had not given the pair permission. The lamb was taken to a farm in Ayrshire, where it was held for between 48 and 72 hours before being returned to Mair. A charge of resetting the lamb against the pair was dropped mid-trial, as there had been no reported theft of the animal. McNeil told the jury he had experience handling animals, having worked with his father, a retired agricultural contractor.