Lee Docherty drugs gang: Greenock organised crime group five guilty

Greenock men Lee Docherty, his brother-in-law Ian Millar, Brendan Gillan, and father Daniel Gillan, along with Christopher McKellar, from Glasgow, controlled a well-established network of low-level dealers and produced, purchased and sold class A, B and C substances for mass profits.

The gang made hundreds of thousands of pounds through the illegal operation, with daily takings ranging from £3,000 to nearly £10,000.

The quintet pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday to being involved in serious organised crime between March and December 2020, including the supply of cocaine, heroin, cannabis and etizolam.

Ringleader Docherty, 37, had originally faced seven indictment charges, including conspiring to buy firearms and ammunition and to commit a serious assault, while a sixth accused, 34-year-old Annemarie Fraser, was cleared of the allegations after Crown prosecutors accepted her not guilty pleas.

The group ran the venture, referred to as a ‘business’ by boss Docherty, from a house in Larkfield known as ‘the shop’.

The heavily-protected Oxford Road property, which was surrounded by metal gates and CCTV cameras, was the centre of the scheme and was regularly visited by ‘customers’ looking to secure product.

Docherty was described in court as the ‘principal of the OCG (organised crime group) orchestrated by him’.

The other gang members ‘answered to him’ and he was involved in ‘all aspects’ of the operation, according to advocate depute Alexander Sutherland.

Millar, 39, was one of Docherty’s most trusted associates who assisted with the moving of drugs between locations, while Brendan Gillan, 32, collected and counted cash and referred to himself as ‘fronting a drugs empire’.

Daniel Gillan, 60, was said to have provided advice on how to run the day-to-day operation and often sampled the freshly-made drugs before offering ‘feedback on its quality and where improvements were needed’.

The court heard that over a two-month period between April and June 2020, the gang took in more than £130,000 from selling drugs to users in Greenock and the surrounding areas.

McKellar, 44, was said to have had a lesser involvement in the scheme but still regularly arranged pick-ups of hundreds of thousands of pills and other drugs for delivery to Larkfield and elsewhere.

The advocate depute said the group used EncroChat – a now-defunct encrypted messaging service - on specialist devices to communicate and plan the operation.

Under the usernames of Renegade Ball, Golden Shark, Sarcastic Flamingo, Mr Golden Trapper, MRRR Celtic, Warm Hail, and Unreal Egg, the OCG members shared updates on orders, stock and earnings and also provided warnings about police activity near the implicated addresses.

A six-month contract with the service cost between £1,200 and £1,500, the court heard.

However, at the beginning of 2020, a joint investigation launched by French and Dutch authorities led to a probe by the UK’s National Crime Agency, with cybercrime analysts, forensic scientists, and dozens of senior police officials linking up.

Law enforcement officers in France were able to view messages and details of crime operations worldwide, with the data from the Greenock gang being shared with Police Scotland.

That intelligence led police to a separate property in Larkfield’s Oxford Road, which had been used as a stash house, and successful search warrants recovered more than £12,000 in cash plus a substantial amount of drugs deemed ‘excessive for personal use’.

Lord Mulholland deferred sentence on the five men until the end of February for the preparation of background reports.

Docherty, of Dunvegan Avenue in Gourock, Millar, of Brachelston Street, Brendan Gillan, of Westmorland Road, Daniel Gillan, of Kelly Street, all Greenock, and McKellar, of Craiglinn Gardens in Glasgow, have been remanded in custody meantime.