A NORTH BELFAST taxi firm fronted a loyalist drugs operation, Belfast Crown Court heard yesterday.
Circle Taxis on the Crumlin Road ran a courier service for the paramilitary group operating from the nearby Glenbryn loyalist housing estate, it was claimed.
A former driver with the company, Hugh Woodside (34), from Beechfield Avenue, Donaghadee, who admitted supplying under-cover police with drugs in October 1995, was given an 18-month suspended jail term.
Judge Peter Gibson said Woodside's was an exceptional case and it was clear to him that "a marked distinction must be made between his employers and the accused himself".
He added that to his mind Woodside "was in essence a delivery boy" who had succumbed to financial temptation.
Earlier, the Crown lawyer, Ms Tessa Kitson, said that people would ring the taxi firm asking fir drugs and it would dispatch drivers to the Glenbryn estate to pick them up and deliver them to the caller.
She added that police became suspicious of links between Circle and the paramilitary group and mounted an undercover operation in October 1995.
On five separate occasions they telephoned Circle, placing orders for LSD or E tabs.
Ms Kitson said that on one occasion when police contacted the taxi firm the receptionist gave the phone to Woodside to deal with the order.
Mr Eugene Grant QC, defending, described Woodside as a "foot soldier, the smallest cog in a very large wheel". He said the taxi firm was engaged with the paramilitary group in an operation to supply drugs throughout Belfast and that Woodside was told he could make a "few pounds" profit if he would deliver them.
Mr Grant said police had become aware of the operation and "nipped it in the bud".