Glasgow garage owner Kristopher Kinnaird, 42, supplied cocaine worth around £120,000 every six weeks.
He was also involved in trafficking 16kg of cannabis valued at £5,500 per kilogram.
But Kinnaird’s criminal activities were exposed after police infiltrated the encrypted EncroChat messaging system favoured by criminals and identified messages linking him to drug deals.
He was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow after pleading guilty to a charge of being involved in Serious Organised Crime between November 2019 and June 2020.
He has also been made subject of a Serious Crime Prevention Order which will be in place for three years after his release from prison.
The order imposes significant and stringent restrictions on his activities after he is released from prison and is designed to protect the public and prevent Kinnaird returning to crime.
Sineidin Corrins, Deputy Procurator Fiscal for Serious Casework at COPFS, said:
“With this successful prosecution, we have removed a significant player in the sale and supply of harmful drugs.
“Kristopher Kinnaird failed in this attempt to distribute significant quantities of illegal and harmful drugs among Scottish communities
“He is now serving a prison sentence thanks to an extensive police operation, working with COPFS, to investigate a network of drug supply.
“This prosecution sends out a strong message about our determination to tackle Serious Organised Crime and the trafficking of controlled drugs
“We will continue to work with our partners as a member of Scotland’s Serious and Organised Crime Taskforce to tackle this type of offending.
“With each case of this kind we can help reduce the harm that these drugs inflict on Scotland’s communities.”
Prosecutors were able to show Kinnaird used the handle ‘Verbosetailor’ on the mobile phone platform EncroChat to set up numerous drug deals involving cocaine and cannabis.
In one exchange, he told a contact that two kilogrammes of cocaine were available in Scotland at a cost of £38,000 per kilo.
In another, he said he could not buy a quantity of cocaine as he had spent almost £100,000 on cocaine and was struggling to recoup the money due to a combination of poorer quality product and customer self-isolation.
Analysis of these messages demonstrated Kinnaird was concerned in the supply of Class A and Class B drugs.
He also posted several images of the drugs he had for sale.
Kinnaird also offered to act as a go-between to source ammunition and firearms, including a Scorpion Evo 3 machine gun and a self-loading pistol.
He will now be subject to confiscation action under Proceeds of Crime laws to recover monies illegally obtained.