Two men whose company sponsored a Scottish football club have been jailed over a £11million cocaine trafficking operation.
David Stephen and Shaun Brown appeared to be respectable businessmen with the logo of their DX Home Improvements firm featuring on the sleeves of Motherwell FC strips.
But the 30-year-olds were living the high-life with drug money, flashy cars, expensive watches and luxury holidays.
In just four months they were involved in the purchase and sale of a huge 125kg – around 276lbs – of cocaine.
The duo, of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, were finally busted when police swooped on them days before Christmas last year.
They pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow to a charge of directing others to commit a serious offence.
Shaun Brown and David Stephen pled guilty at the High Court in Glasgow
Judge Lord Cubie sentenced each man to six years and eight months and said: ‘You both showed the trappings of wealth.
‘The purchase, distribution and sale of cocaine gives rise to misery, poverty and death.
‘This was coercive and your motivations were selfish. Mr Stephen, you were successful beyond drug money and it is a pity you didn’t focus on this success in 2020.
‘Mr Brown, you said that you were put off alcohol due to its impact yet it didn’t stop you from peddling another form of addictive substance.
‘The public’s interest is high in suppressing the criminal activity you were involved in.’
The cocaine dealing initially spanned between March and June 2020 and involved around 5kg of the drug with the EncroChat phone network used to arrange the ‘purchase, collection, delivery, adulteration, storage and sale’ of the narcotic.
Both also directed the pick-up of dirty money from their illegal trade.
Prosecutor Alexandria Kirk said the pair organised the drug to be cut with another substance to maximise profits bringing a potential value of £600,000.
But they were not caught at that time and remained managing directors of their seemingly successful home improvements business based in Lanarkshire.
As well as the partnership with Motherwell FC, the company also sponsored a family race night at Hamilton Park - each unaware of the pair’s crime links.
One of the duo featured on a podcast to speak about how well their company was doing.
But they remained involved in high-level drug dealing.
The pair were snared by police shortly after Stephen had travelled from the upmarket Til Al Ghaf resort in Dubai to Scotland on a first class Emirates flight on December 23, 2025.
He was in his Lamborghini Urus having stopped at a petrol station in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire.
Brown was his passenger and both were held at the time.
Officers initially seized six mobiles showing ‘group chats’ with associates and clips of Stephen handling the blocks of drugs.
A total of £1,077 worth of UAE dirhams were in a blue Louis Vuitton bag as well £750 elsewhere in the vehicle.
David Stephen had purchased a money counting machine online to tally up their drug cash
Thomas Ross KC, defending Stephen, and Brian McConnachie KC, defending Brown, both told the sentencing that their clients’ offending was absent of matters such as violence and firearms as is seen in similar types of cases.
Mr Ross added debt was a factor in his client’s offending to begin with and added: ‘He accepts full responsibility for his offending and accepts that he is deserving of imprisonment.’
Mr McConnachie stated: ‘The business that was set up in July 2020 started off by being funded by the drug money that was obtained in the period leading up to that.
‘Thereafter, the business developed separately until such time it became difficult financially and he went back to the position he had been in 2020.’
Extra police were drafted into court for the two appearing amid reports of a suspected security risk involving one of them.
Both men will now be subject to confiscation action under Proceeds of Crime legislation to recover monies illegally obtained.