The Glasgow Crime Story of the Albany Hotel drugs investigation

Built three years earlier it was also one of the first hotels anywhere to have colour television in all its rooms.

Hollywood stars like Sophia Loren, Charlton Heston and Bridgit Bardot all stayed there on visits to the city.

Chart-topping acts like the Osmonds, David Bowie and Status Quo would rent out a suite of rooms before sell out concerts at the nearby Apollo concert venue.

Major companies would host lavish dinners and awards ceremonies for clients and distinquished guests.

And until 2007 when it closed, it was home to the St Andrews Sporting Club where world boxing title fights were staged, the most memorable being between Jim Watt and Ken Buchanan.

However, 46 years ago it was at the centre of a controversy involving senior figures in Strathclyde Police, organised crime figures and members of the legal establishment.

Two men Matthew McHugh, 34, and Terence Goodship, 37, had been caught with around £6,000 of cannabis in a hotel room on the fourth floor.

It seemed like a massive coup for the police in their battle against the then-growing drug trade.

Detectives also believed they had broken up a major cannabis smuggling ring with London connections.

However lawyers for both accused claimed that the men had been set up by the police.

They were also accused of having ordered the drugs so that they could then arrest the couriers.

To make matters worse Strathclyde Police's own specialist drugs squad had taken nothing to do with the raid and were even accused of leaking information to the defence.

The case would prove to be one of the most controversial in Strathclyde Police's 38-year history.

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The two men at the centre of the drama were petty criminal David Cussins and veteran crimefighter Detective Chief Inspector Les Brown, above.

At the time Brown was one of the most experienced and respected investigators in the force.

The drugs squad were however suspicious of Cussin who had previously accused them of selling drugs to students to get information on their dealers. They had however been investigated and cleared over the allegations.

Cussins had tipped off Brown that a late amount of cannabis was being delivered in early November 1976 to Glasgow.

He passed on the information having been asked to get involved in the transaction by major underworld figures in London.

Brown had a team of his best officers on duty that day at the hotel including one Detective John Orr who would go on to become the force's Chief Constable 20 years later.

The crack team were also all armed with Smith and Wesson guns in case things got nasty.

One officer was placed at hotel reception and others in the two adjoining the rooms where the drug dealers were booked. 

Once the two suspects arrived the detectives pounced and seized 29 slabs of high quality Moroccan cannabis which was then taken away for examination.

During the surveillance, Brown had been in contact with Cussins in case the dealers got in touch to change their plans.

He and another detective even had a two-course meal in his house while they waited for the rugs to arrive.

After the hotel raid, a search was even carried out on Cussins house.

It was also to take the heat off him should he be suspected by the London gang of being the informant.

At this point, all seemed to be going well for Brown and his drugs investigation or so it seemed.

However there were further allegations that Cussins had been used as fixer by Brown to set up the hit and the drugs had effectively been planted on the two arrested men.

There were also claims that Cussin had got bail for other offences for which he had been charged, for his cooperation in the drugs sting.

Prior to the trial Brown was investigated by the then Assistant Chief Constable Arthur Bell over the claims but cleared of any wrongdoing.

The subsequent trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in September 1977 was a media sensation.

Some of the top legal brains of the day were hired to represent the two accused from London including QC's Nicholas Fairburn and Malcolm Rifkind.

Both would go on to become Tory MPs and ministers in Margaret Thatcher's government of the 1980s.

In a sensational move, McHugh lodged a special defence of incrimination blaming Brown and Cussins and saying they were behind the deal.

Brown spent three days in the witness box where he was subject to rigorous cross-examination by Fairburn but denied that there was anything untoward about the investigation.

The jury were told that the two accused were part of a Moroccan-based cannabis smuggling operation who were shipping the drugs in luxury yachts to Britain.

Both men claimed that they knew nothing about the drugs shipments or that there were drugs in their luggage or hotel room.

One of the two accused said he thought the delivery he was carrying was adult movies not drugs.

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The man who had been head of Strathclyde Police Drugs Squad Jack Beattie, above, at the time of the cannabis seizure was called as a defence witness.

He told the jury that he did not think that London based drugs gang were organising shipments to Glasgow and such an amount was more likely to involve local criminals acting on their own.

At one stage during the three week trial McHugh' legal team dropped the special defence blaming DCI Brown. Their strategy had been to show that everyone on the prosecution side was lying about their role in the drugs sting including Brown.

At the conclusion of the trial of the trial Malcolm Rifkind, for McHugh, accused the police of setting a trap for his client and said that peoples liberties were at risk if such thing was allowed to happen.

After three hours the jury found Goodship not proven and McHugh unanimously guilty.

He was given six years in prison despite claims by Rifkind that he was a minor player in the drugs scene.

After the case was finished there were further allegations that DCI Bown had warned his officers over their evidence and not to stray from a previously agreed versions of events.

However following an investigation by an outside body Brown was cleared of any impropriety.

By this time Cussins had also done a runner fearing that he would be sent to jail and targeted for being an informer.

Before the Albany Hotel affair he had met with the drugs gang in a pub in London and two of them had been carrying guns in a holster.

That was to show what they were capable of if crossed.

Cussins realised his life was in danger if he hung about Glasgow too long or even if he ended up in prison.

It was then revealed that Jack Beattie was under investigation for fraud over a claim for housing rent.

He stood trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court but was cleared with the sheriff criticising the evidence given by senior officers.

By this time Beattie had been moved from his post as drugs squad chief to a uniform role at the same rank.

Three years after the Albany Hotel drugs trial in September 1979 a fishing boat called Guiding Light was was caught with £100,000 of cannabis on a beach in south west England having sailed from Morocco.

Among those arrested was Tererce Goodship who got a lengthy sentence.

Eight years after Cussins went missing he was found dead in Pennsylvania in the USA in a ravine having been shot.

Brown, who attended his funeral, believed it was a revenge by the London drugs for ratting on them.

He retired in 1983 after 28 years service and went to work in a civilian role for the Federation Against Copyright Theft organisation investigating piracy on behalf of the music and film industry.

In his 2005 biography 'Glasgow Crimefighter' Brown, said he felt that the subsequent convictions of both McHugh and Goodship vindicated his original approach to the Albany Hotel drugs investigation.

The controversial former detective who died in 2019 added:"It was a period in my service that I will never forget and I was at the centre of it "There were worrying moments and many sleepless night.

"I came out of it vindicated by the judge and the jury.

"Sometimes It is hard not to say: "I told you so."