A ‘CAPABLE’ and ‘intelligent’ engineer who created a multi-million-pound drugs empire after losing his job has been hit with a Serious Crime Prevention Order. 

Craig Dineen, 31, turned to drug dealing because he was worried about not being able to provide for his family.

But the High Court in Edinburgh heard that he was so successful at supplying cannabis that he bought top-of-the-range bling including a £100,000 Range Rover.

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In a plot similar to the hit TV show Breaking Bad, the court heard how Dineen and his associates supplied more than a tonne of the drug and generated around £2 million in cash.

On Wednesday, Judge Lord Fairley passed a Serious Crime Prevention Order on Dineen during a short court hearing. 

Such an order forces Dineen to comply with police requests for information about his activities following his release from custody. 

It also forces offenders to notify the authorities about where they are staying and who they are associating with. 

Such orders are passed with the intention of preventing criminals from returning to their lives of crime. 

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At proceedings earlier this year, defence advocate Ian Duguid KC told Lord Fairley about how Dineen started the scam after losing his job at the start of the Covid pandemic.

He teamed up with his partner’s cousin David McMillan, 40, to use his Volkswagen Transporter which was known as ‘Div’s van’. 

Both Dineen and McMillan thought the vehicle provided them with the perfect means to conduct their crimes. 

Dineen and McMillan also recruited Craig McMillan, 36, Stephen Hamilton, 31, and Andrew Mullin, 46. 

The trio then assisted Dineen and David McMillan in the scam.

It ended after police became aware the crooks were using an encrypted chat app to communicate with each other. 

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The authorities uncovered texts which showed the gangsters chatting about how much they were making from their crimes. 

The court heard how the gang operated in Glasgow’s Pollok, Cardonald and Pollokshields areas. They also operated in Renfrewshire.

Prosecutor Lindsey Dalziel told of how Dineen's gang was snared after detectives launched Operation Juneberry against them. 

The court heard how the drugs squad established the leader was Dineen. 

Speaking about Dineen, Miss Dalziel said: "He had a lavish lifestyle - often engaging in discussions about high-value goods, such as watches and he drove a Range Rover costing £97,500."

Officers established that Dineen communicated via encrypted Encrochat messages - the platform favoured by criminals and later smashed by French and Dutch law authorities.

The texts revealed him discussing cash and drugs while also organising couriers and money-counting machines.

Dineen, of Renfrew, Renfrewshire,  and David McMillan, of Cardonald, Glasgow, pleaded guilty to a charge of being involved in a serious organised crime between March 2020 and July 2021.

Craig McMillan, of Nitshill, Glasgow, and Hamilton, of Pollok, Glasgow, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cannabis - the latter on one day only.

Mullin, also of Pollok, Glasgow, admitted to being involved in serious organised crime, but a lesser role to that of Dineen and David McMillan.

Lord Fairley jailed Dineen for six years, telling him: "You were the controlling and directing mind of a significant operation."