AN ex-soldier has been jailed for more than five years after being caught with a £500,000 drugs haul in his car.

AN ex-soldier has been jailed for more than five years after being caught with a £500,000 drugs haul in his car.

The High Court in Edinburgh was told that David Langford was trying to pay off crippling credit card debts.

He hoped the £5000 he was to be paid for delivering the diazepam tranquillisers and ecstasy would ease the money worries which had cost him his house.

But jailing him for five years and six months, Lady Smith told him the massive quantity of drugs had the potential for enormous damage to society and individuals.

The judge added: "The drug trade is vicious. It is evil".

Father-of-two Langford, 31, of Meadowhead Road, Wishaw, Lanarkshire, had earlier pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of diazepam and ecstasy.

Police stopped his car last March 27 on the M74 near Abington and found the drugs in the boot.

There were around half-a-million tranquilliser tablets, which could have sold for up to £1 each. The ecstasy could have fetched up to £300.

Solicitor advocate Jim Keegan, defending, said that Langford had worked as an HGV driver after leaving the Army in 1997.

But he and his wife had run up debts of £30,000.

Mr Keegan added: "It is not an excuse, and I don't believe he attempts to make it an excuse. It is an explanation."