A Shropshire man was waiting at a London social club when an estimated £17 million worth of cannabis was delivered in a lorry driven by an undercover detective, a court heard today.

Christopher Hopkins, 29, signed for the 120 boxes containing the herbal cannabis which had been flown into Heathrow Airport from South Africa a few days earlier.

A jury at Wood Green Crown Court heard that Hopkins put 14 of the boxes in a smaller white van and was driving away when the Police and Customs officers swooped on the social club in Edgware.

Hopkins, of The Larches, Newport, and two other men, Ahmed Kalib, 26, of Stanmore, and Yasin Muse, 38, of Edgware, all deny being involved in the illegal importation of a controlled drug.

Mr Richard Jory, prosecuting, said that Hopkins had signed the delivery note as “C Jones” and was seen helping to unload the heavy boxes from the lorry on November 18 last year.

He said that Muse, the manager of the Somali Social Club in Burnt Oak, and his friend Kalib, had also been seen lifting the boxes from the lorry and storing them in the building.

“When the storage area was full the rest of the boxes were then stacked outside the club in the street,” said Mr Jory.

“There were 14 boxes loaded on to a white Citroen van which Hopkins had started to drive away when the police decided to move in and make arrests.”

Mr Jory said the defendants were not the main organisers, but alleged they had played a pivotal role as trusted individuals, al-though the police did not know the ultimate destination of the drugs.

He said the cannabis was discovered by the UK Border Agency while the boxes were in a secure storage area in Heathrow Airport. The undercover officer had later acted as the delivery driver.

Mr Jory said a false company, Vogue Imports Ltd, used the address at the social club. When arrested Hopkins told police he was an out-of-work plumber who had been offered £1,000 in Shropshire to drive to London to collect the boxes. He had borrowed a friend’s van and did it because he was in debt and had no idea what was in the boxes.

The trial is expected to last until early next week.

By Arthur Mills at Wood Green Crown Court