Edinburgh Airport drugs trial begins
23.01.08
A trial started yesterday over cocaine with a potential street value of £500,000 uncovered hidden in wooden packaging at Edinburgh Airport. The High Court in Edinburgh heard that police and customs officers searching through cheap vases from Peru drew a blank - until they turned their attention to the wooden packaging.
The court heard the searchers noticed three lengths of wood in each of the crates was a slightly different colour. The slats making up six wooden crates in a warehouse at Edinburgh Airport revealed a suspicious shadow when x-rayed.
On trial is Edmond Okoli, 43, of Tyrrell Road, London, who denies smuggling cocaine into Scotland in November 2005 and being concerned in the supply of the drug. A customs officer said that the drugs were hidden by 'very professional' drug smugglers. A total of six kilos of cocaine, of very high purity, had been hidden in the wood.
After the cocaine had been seized the crates were put back together and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency put a bug in a crate and waited for them to be collected. A white Toyota van was stopped as it headed south on the M74, with Okoli inside. A language expert testified that snatches of conversation could be heard against a background of a vehicle starting up. A transcript shown to the jury described part of the recording as 'brief joyful singing' and translated as 'He who's got the drug is going ...'
The trial continues.
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