Lorry loading footage seen by Shropshire drug plot trial jury
A jury has been shown video footage of refrigerated lorries being loaded in Holland with boxes of drugs to be brought back to a Shropshire warehouse.
Dozens of packages containing quantities of skunk cannabis were hidden among trolleys holding fresh cut flowers.
The illegal cargo, destined for a warehouse of Baan Flower Trading in Market Drayton, was part of a multi-million drugs conspiracy.
On trial at Birmingham Crown Court are Ashleigh Watkin, 38, of Loggerheads, near Market Dryaton; Gary Davies, 37, of Overdale, Telford, formerly from Market Drayton; David Thompson, 42, of Laburnam Avenue, Cannock and Stuart Grant, 42, of Deansfield Road, Bearwood, who all deny being involved in a conspiracy to smuggle cannabis into the UK between November, 2011 and February, 2013.
Watkin and Davies also deny an allegation of being involved in the supply of cannabis during the same period.
Giving evidence at court yesterday Detective Sergeant Mick Holden, of West Mercia police, identified Grant and Thompson as they appeared on the video footage.
They were the drivers of the lorries that pulled up outside a factory unit in Rijnsburg – a town halfway between Amsterdam and the Hook of Holland ferry port.
The covert recordings from 2012 showed visits to the unit where the two drivers met Baan Klootwijk, joint owner of Baan Flower Trading, and two other men and were seen helping load boxes on to the trucks.
Klootwijk, a Dutch national, and North and two other men have admitted conspiracy to import and to supply cannabis. Three other men have pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis. The trial continues.
