A DRUGS courier from Blackburn has admitted smuggling cocaine worth almost £60,000 into Scotland by train.

Drug squad detectives acting on a tip-off were waiting for 20-year-old Haroon Zafir at Edinburgh's Waverley Station when his train pulled in, the High Court in the Scottish capital heard.

He had travelled from Manchester's Piccadilly station to Scotland with blocks of cocaine in a shoulder bag, the court was told.

Officers watched Zafir, of Pringle Street, leave the station and head towards a Fiat car parked close to a taxi rank. As Zafir went towards the driver, police intervened.

Robert Weir, prosecuting, said that Zafir was the only person to get off the April 1 train -- which was running late when it arrived in Scotland -- to match the description they had been given.

They were told two men of Asian origin would meet and the drugs would be handed over.

Police at the station asked Zafir if he had drugs on him and he replied: "In the bag." Police searched a holdall he was carrying, and then a shoulder bag.

Blocks of cocaine, estimated to have a street value of £58,620, were found and Zafir and another man were arrested.

Zafir admitted in court to being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug between Bury and Waverley railway station on April 1.

The court heard that he told officers he was told to collect a package from two men at a petrol station at Bury and to take it to Edinburgh.

The takeaway assistant said he was handed the shoulder bag and he looked in it and knew it contained drugs.

Zafir said he was to be paid £1,000 for delivering the drugs to Scotland.

Presiding over the case, Lord Bracadale deferred sentence on Zafir to obtain a background report.