A father and son from Bathgate have been charged after Kratom, a new psychoactive substance with a street value of £60,000 was seized by Border Force.
Kratom is a controlled substance under the New Psychoactive Substances Act 2016. It is traditionally grown in south-east Asia and used as a stimulant with opioid-like properties.
Organised Crime Partnership officers arrested the two men, aged 60 and 38, in Bathgate on Tuesday after Kratom was recovered at Edinburgh Airport on 15 April and East Midlands Airport on 6 May.
The seizures were part of a joint National Crime Agency and Police Scotland investigation.
NCA Scotland operations manager John McGowan said: “We estimate these seizures would have had a combined value of around £60,000 once sold on the black market.
“Kratom is a dangerous drug and working with partners like Police Scotland and Border Force, we are determined to do all we can to prevent such substances making it on to our streets and damaging the communities of Scotland.”
Murdo MacMillan, deputy director of Border Force Scotland, said: “These seizures have taken a large amount of dangerous psychoactive substances out of the hands of organised criminals and off our streets.”
The men have both been released and will appear in court on a later date.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
