DRUG BUST COP OUITS FORCE

Exclusive Detective Leaves Force After Being Charged

A DETECTIVE has quit his force after being arrested and charged with
drugs offences.

Detective Constable David Johnstone, 32, handed in his resignation
after a meeting with senior officers at Tayside Police.

Johnstone had been working in Dundee and investigated drugs cases.

His own colleagues arrested him after Class A drugs were allegedly
discovered by officers acting on a tip-off. Johnstone, once a
uniformed officer in Perth, was arrested in December and charged in
connection with drug allegations.

A report has been passed to the procurator fiscal in Dundee.

Tayside Police yesterday admitted Johnstone had quit the force in the
wake of the allegations made against him.

A spokeswoman said: "All I can confirm is that a Tayside Police
officer was reportedto the procurator fiscal in connection with a
criminal inquiry and the officer has since resigned from the force."

She declined to give any further details of the incident which led to
Johnstone's arrest and subsequent resignation.

But married Johnstone admitted to his senior officers several months
ago that he had a drug problem.

A colleague of Johnstone said: "He was arrested during the second
week of December but the force are keeping it very quiet. "It was
originally being described as a neglect of duty but it has since
become clear it's a more serious drugs allegation."

There are growing concerns among senior officers about the number of
young police officers who are recreational drug users and may even be dealing.

It's feared that as many as 1000 officers - about six per cent of the
country's police - are addicted to alcohol or drugs.

In June 2005, probationer Strathclyde cop Barry Adams, 24, from
Kelvinside, Glasgow was caught with UKP4000 worth of heroin and was
jailed for 16 months.

Six months earlier, Michael Norden, 31, from Kirkintilloch, near
Glasgow, was booted out of the force after he was caught with cocaine
in a car and fined at Ayr Sheriff Court.

Twelve years ago, PC Euan Ranson was caught supplying ecstasy tablets
to Sunday Mail reporters he thought were car dealers.

He boasted to us of driving his panda car on drugs.

Ranson, then 34, of Cults, Aberdeen, was jailed for six months in
1997 and booted out of Grampian Police.