The Welsh cross lamb at the centre of a bizarre drugs bust in Central Scotland, is now safely returned to its owner.

Last month, Police Scotland stopped and searched a car on the M74 and as well as finding £10,000 worth of Class A drugs, there was a young bleating lamb.

Thanks to the lamb's ear tag and some police work, the animal was traced back to Kirsty Mair, from North Lanrigg Farm, in North Lanarkshire, and is now safely back with its mother.

Kirsty’s father, SAC consultant, Robin Mair, who farms with his daughter, said: “I was sitting beside my daughter, Kirsty, when she saw the article about the drugs bust and lamb. She showed me the picture and said ‘Dad, that looks like one of my lambs’.

"It did and to be fair, there are not many Welsh crosses in Central Scotland. Anyway, we thought nothing more of it.

“But late last week, the police turned up in the yard to speak to Kirsty. They informed her that the lamb in the picture had been traced to her through the ear tag and it was currently being looked after by a farmer at Fenwick.

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"They then asked her if she had noticed a lamb missing. She said as there were well over 200 lambs in the field, no she hadn’t. Once she had given them a statement, they then passed on the details of the farmer so they could be reunited and left.”

The family have now named the lamb Pablo, due to its mix up in the drugs trade. The farmer at Fenwick said he was approached by the police at midnight on the day of the drugs bust asking if he could take in the lamb which had not been fed since it was stolen being described as ‘at death's door’.

Once fed, watered and revived, the farmer tried to track the owner down but he found all the agencies were unable to help, blaming GDPR rules which prevent the sharing of personal information. However, once the police became involved they got on the case and traced Kirsty down.

Mr Mair said: “On the way home from collecting the lamb Kirsty started to tell me the history of this lamb, one of twins male and female, when it was born, time it was born and the mother. On reading the tag, checking her notes – she was right!”

“Moral of the story - maybe it pays to tag lambs early, or maybe it is a lesson to drug dealers if you want to be inconspicuous, don’t steal a lamb and have it in the back of a car going down the motorway.

"Anyway, Pablo is fine, in with his new pet lamb pals. You literally couldn’t make it up and wouldn’t it have been a great April Fool's prank had it not been true.”