A drug dealer linked with slain Glasgow gangster Euan Johnston has been using home leaves to smuggle heroin back into prison.

Gary Bradburn had only served a third of his sentence when he was moved to open security conditions and allowed out for home visits.

But Bradburn, 42 - who was serving five years and three months for his part in a £600,000 heroin trade - was sneaking drugs back into Castle Huntly.

At Perth Sheriff Court, he admitted having heroin and another drug at the jail, near Dundee, on November 16 last year.

Fiscal depute Catriona MacQueen said: "Prison officers entered the accused's cell and could see he was unresponsive in his bed.

READ MORE: Drug-dealing duo jailed over Euan Johnston heroin trade months after one sat next to gangster during assassination

"He was eventually awoken and appeared slightly sleepy and unsteady on his feet. Officers had cause to believe he may have taken a number of substances.

"He was asked if he had anything and said no. But during a search of the accused a number of packages were recovered from within his boxer shorts."

Bradburn admitted having heroin worth 750 pounds and five Zopiclon tablets worth 25 pounds in the prison on 16 November last year.

In 2017, he was jailed along with Brian McMahon, who was in the car when gangland kingpin Johnston was shot dead.

READ MORE: Euan Johnson was near another possible shooting before his death

Ex-squaddie McMahon, 30, was the uninjured passenger in Johnston’s flash Audi when he was shot dead in Kinning Park, Glasgow, in November 2016.

His DNA was found on a bag containing heroin worth £17,600 which police recovered from the boot of a car they stopped in Possil in March 2014.

Bradburn was sentenced to five years and three months for running a drugs factory in his home in Glasgow’s Keppochhill Road.