Jail for Scots in plot to smuggle explosives to UVF

Two men arrested in Scotland trying to smuggle enough explosives to make 10 car bombs to paramilitaries in Northern Ireland were jailed yesterday for 11 years each.

Robert Baird, 46, from Kirkintilloch, and Donald Reid, 28, from Kilsyth, pleaded guilty to conspiring to help the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force by transporting 11lb of explosives by car ferry from Troon in south-west Scotland to Belfast earlier this year.

The High Court in Glasgow heard yesterday that, after a two-week surveillance operation involving more than 100 police officers, the two men were arrested on the way to the Ayrshire port on 4 May. Operation Whiteout, as it was named by anti-terrorist officers, was described by Advocate Depute Murdo MacLeod, the Crown prosecutor, as an important action that had led to the seizure of the second-biggest haul of explosives in Scotland for 30 years.

The Ulster Volunteer Force was founded in 1996 with a policy of avenging attacks by the IRA and obstructing moves towards a united Ireland.

After several days of surveillance, officers stopped Reid's car on the way to the ferry and discovered a bag of commercial explosives hidden in the boot and a number of detonators and fuses hidden underneath one of the car doors.

A search of Baird's house uncovered a jacket containing a roll of tape, which experts established had been used to fix the detonators and fuses in place, a bag containing 5.56mm bullets, which were compatible with British service issue rifles, and a balaclava.

Police also discovered extensive Ulster Volunteer Force paraphernalia, including framed photographs of terrorists and loyalist graffiti, in the homes of both men.

Yesterday the court was told that the two men formed part of a network of Ulster Volunteer Force cells and support groups working throughout Scotland that had been organised into "area units".

"Intelligence suggests that the UVF in the west of Scotland has access to firearms and munitions and continues to procure additional weaponry and munitions as it becomes available," said Mr Macleod, for the prosecution.

Although lawyers for the two men told the court that neither was a member of the UVF, they admitted that both men were supportive of legal organisations sympathetic to the loyalist cause. Paul McBride QC, defending Baird, said the married father-of-four had long held "legitimate sympathies" with legal organisations sympathetic to the loyalist cause.

"As a result of associations with persons and friends, he found himself being drawn into this enterprise, something that he bitterly regrets," said Mr McBride.

George Gebbie, defending Reid, said that his client had acted as a "courier" and was unaware of the scale of the operation.

"Mr Reid became aware of much more information after he was apprehended by the police than he was aware of before," he said. "He is shocked by the magnitude of what he is involved in."

In sentencing the men, the judge, Lord Menzies, said the explosives "could have been used to kill and maim innocent people and used to make up to 10 car bombs. These are matters that the court is bound to view with the utmost severity".

Baird and Reid were also jailed for eight years each after pleading guilty to possessing items to be used in an act of terrorism, and Reid got a three-year sentence for possessing ammunition without a firearms certificate. All the sentences will run concurrently.

Two other men – Brian Cairney, 41, from Kirkintilloch, and Alan Salmon, 30, from Glasgow – were acquitted of the charges after the judge accepted not guilty pleas tended on their behalf.