Scots crime boss who imported £1.6m of cocaine in dog food unmasked as breeding company boss

A crime boss twice snared for importing huge amounts of drugs into Scotland can be unmasked as the head of two extreme dog breeding organisations.

William Byrne is behind bars awaiting sentence after pleading guilty over a £1.6million drug ring which saw him and his associates sneaking drugs into Scotland from the Netherlands.

Supercar driving Byrne, who was first outed as an international drug smuggler in 2010, served as head of the American Bully Kennel Club (ABKC) UK.

The 41-year-old also runs American bully breeding business Dynamight Kennels and has used his love of dogs to help him in his international drug smuggling rings.

The organisation was exposed in a BBC documentary, which revealed that shows hosted by the body have included a parade of extremely bred dogs with illegally cropped ears.

Part of the 2023 BBC Disclosure programme included undercover footage from the American Bully Kennel Club's (ABKC) UK show.

Two 10-week-old pups with freshly cropped ears were videoed at the home of ABKC judge Aaron Lee - a practice blasted as "appalling" by the RSPCA.

Byrne, who is originally from Wemyss Bay but used his drug dealing profits to buy a luxury home in Stirling, has made a fortune selling massive dogs as pups.

Some sell for as much as £5,000, with fans of the top-end bloodlines desperate to get their hands on what Byrne calls "demon pups".

And he even tried to sell his dog's semen for £15,000-a-time - so breeders could use it for a litter of pups.

He used the thousands he raked in from pup sales to splash out on a yellow Lamborghini, complete with private registration D333MON, in a nod to his love of dogs.

In one Instagram post he said: "I’ve decided I am going to sell two frozen breedings from the one and only Razorsedge demon boy!

"In my opinion one of the baddest dogs on the planet, the full package, rear, structure, drive, and pretty god damn close to the most perfect representation of the American bully.

"This is a chance to create something for the history books. 

"He has been closed to the public for over 4 years and I feel it’s time to give some the opportunity to have this impeccable blood in their kennel breedings.

"Will be sold for £15k each paid in full no lock ins no pay ups semen will be sent to your nearest clinic as soon as paid."

But Byrne is facing a lengthy jail term after pleading guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh earlier this month, after being snared in Portugal.

His partner in crime, John Neilson, was previously caged for seven and a half years for his role in the scheme, which took place during the coronavirus pandemic.

A shipment of "Nature's Best Dog Food" was searched following a raid by Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency, who were acting on a tip-off.

They had been delivered to Byrne’s RMB Services firm in Bathgate, West Lothian, and 15 1kg blocks wrapped in black tape were found within.

The probe revealed that another consignment was due and it was also searched, unearthing a further 13kg of cocaine.

The blocks were valued at £40,000 each, due to have a purity of 65% pure, so worth around £1.2m.

But it could have fetched around £1.625m when adulterated and sold in individual deals.

Byrne will be sentenced over the case next month.

In 2011, he was ordered to hand over £45,000 under proceeds of crime laws.

The ruling was made after he was jailed in 2010 for four-and-a-half-year over his £7million cocaine empire - which saw the drug baron and his gang caged for more than 63 years.

Byrne, who was 25 at the time, and his minions trafficked Caribbean cocaine and bought and sold drugs, guns and cash across Scotland.

He had told the taxman that he had earned less than £5,000 since 2002 but had lived in a £350,000 home and drove Mercedes and BMW cars worth more than £50,000.

They were brought down following a year-long operation, codenamed Salute, carried out by the now-defunct Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency.

The crack cops worked with Strathclyde and Lothian and Borders police and detectives in the Dominican Republic, where Byrne sourced his cocaine, to bring down the gang.

The operations resulted in 14.5 kilos of cocaine, worth around £3.8million, and 1.25tons of cannabis resin, worth around £3.5million, being recovered, along with four firearms, ammunition and a CS spray gun.

As he caged Byrne at the time, Judge Lord Matthews said: "You obviously were the main player."