Two Scots drug couriers are behind bars after a near £7m cross-border heroin pick-up.

Martin Lauder, 29, and David McShane, 28, were caught as they travelled back north from a Hilton Hotel in the Midlands.

Police stopped the pair's hired Vauxhall Insignia on the M74 near Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, on July 12.

Two bags seized were found to hold 60 taped packages, which a judge heard could have a potential value of £6.8m.

On Thursday, the pair pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow to being concerned in the supply of heroin.

Lauder - who lives in a house at Douglas Park Golf Club in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire - and McShane, of the Glasgow's Maryhill, were remanded in custody.

They will be sentenced next month.

Prosecutor Shanti Maguire said police got information the pair were going to England to "uplift a large quantity of controlled drugs".

Both were traced to the Hilton Ricoh Arena Hotel in Coventry and police made plans to stop their vehicle as they headed back to Scotland.

Miss Maguire said: "Officers were informed that they had been involved in a drugs transaction and that the commodity was in the car."

The duo were soon halted on the M74, but they made no comment.

The heroin had a purity of up to 61%. The drugs could be adulterated to 157kg.

Miss Maguire told the court police "intelligence suggests" the pair were acting as "couriers".

Lady Dorrian deferred sentencing until December 10 in Edinburgh.