Four stand trial accused of Fife drug enterprise

Agreed evidence that police recovered quantity of cocaine

Four men have gone on trial charged with running a criminal enterprise to supply hard drugs in Fife.

The accused were arrested after police last year allegedly seized class A drugs including heroin and cocaine estimated to be worth more than £180,000.

Mark Seller, Stephen MacDonald, Ian Handyside and Scott Porter are all charged with being concerned in the supply of heroin in Burntisland and Kirkcaldy between April 27 and August 14 last year.

Seller, MacDonald and Handyside are also accused of being concerned in the supply of the class A drug cocaine at similar locations in the same period.

MacDonald is further accused of being concerned in the supply of the class B drug cannabis and possessing cocaine in Dunearn Drive, Kirkcaldy, on September 5 last year.

Sellar faces additional charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice by running away from police and disposing of cocaine, possessing the class C drugs Etizolam and Alprazolam and driving without insurance.

A jury at the High Court in Livingston has heard agreed evidence that police had recovered just over 40 grammes of 78% purity cocaine following a surveillance operation.

The joint minute of agreement also revealed that the prosecution held 3.17 grammes of ‘coke’ with a higher purity of 87%, and 3.84 grammes of paracetamol mixed with caffeine, a powder used as a mixing agent.

PC Elizabeth James, 51, said she and another WPC had gone to see if Sellar was OK after they saw him “slumped over” in the driver’s seat of a Saab car in Dollar Road, Burntisland, on April 27.

He was detained under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

She said: “Mark made his way round the front of the car to the passenger side of the car. He opened the front passenger door, grabbed something and ran off.”

She said police gave chase and caught up with Sellar. He no longer had the package but produced another package, containing powder, from his mouth.

DC Alan Brooks, 43, said detectives got authority to set up a surveillance operation focused on Sellar on June 20.

Subsequent vehicle stops involving Sellar’s Saab, a white Ford Transit van being driven by Handyside in which Sellar was a passenger, and a black Land Rover Freelander being driven by Porter resulted in the arrest of three of the accused on suspicion of drugs offences.

Sellar, 49; MacDonald, 44, of Hendry Crescent; Handyside, 37, of Kiln Wynd; and Porter, 34, of Chestnut Avenue, all Kirkcaldy, deny the charges and have lodged special defences incriminating each other.

The trial, before Lord Burns, continues.