Judge praises sniffer dog that outwitted cannabis smugglers A JUDGE has praised a police dog which foiled an "ingenious" plot to smuggle almost £500,000 of drugs from Scotland to Northern Ireland. Laurence McAllister, 56, and Kieran Murphy, 46, had 24.5kg of cannabis hidden in bags of molasses in a horsebox as they tried to board a ferry at Cairnryan, Wigtownshire. Sniffer dog Buster, a springer spaniel, alerted officers to large sums of cash being carried by the men, and a search of their vehicle revealed the drugs. McAllister, of Kells, Co Antrim, was jailed for five years and six months, and Murphy, of Rathfriland, Co Down, received a five-year sentence after they were convicted yesterday by a jury of being concerned as couriers in the supplying of cannabis in April at Cairnryan and elsewhere. The trial heard the men had crossed on the Dublin-Holyhead ferry and had travelled north to make the return journey on the ferry to Belfast. Lord Uist said at the High Court in Edinburgh that "as a result of the good work of Buster" it was discovered that both men had significant amounts of cash - McAllister had more than £6,000 and Murphy had £765. The horsebox was searched and four hessian bags were found in a space between two horses in stalls. The bags contained molasses, to mask the smell, and bags of cannabis. The drugs had a potential street value of £244,000 in Scotland and £488,000 in Northern Ireland. "This was a large and valuable consignment of drugs which indicates drug dealing at a high level," said Lord Uist. The idea of using a horsebox for the transporting of drugs is a novel and an ingenious one, and whoever thought of the trip must have considered it a foolproof method. Fortunately, and thanks to Buster, that has proved not to be the case, and somone has lost a great deal of money as a result of the police discovering these drugs. The court heard that both men protested their innocence, but Lord Uist said McAllister had commissioned Murphy to drive him on their expedition in Murphy's horsebox. "You were playing for high stakes when you undertook this trip and you must now suffer the consequences," said the judge. Defence counsel Simon Gilbride said McAllister had a number of previous convictions and had been on bail at the time of the latest offence, but this was his first conviction for drugs. Bill McVicar, solicitor-advocate for Murphy, said his client had only two convictions for minor motoring offences and had been a man of some standing in his community until hard times took their toll. "This conviction represents a very significant change from what would normally be expected of someone of his character," said Mr McVicar.