A jury retired today to consider its verdict in the trial of a mechanic accused of taking part in a £200 million (€229 million) cocaine-smuggling plot that emerged off the Co Cork coast.
John Edney (57), from Sutton-at-Hone, Kent, is alleged to have bought three Land Rovers used by the gang. He denies conspiracy to supply the class A drug.
The trial, which began at Blackfriars Crown Court in London on February 11th, heard the smuggling plot was foiled after a boat carrying the consignment of more than 1,500kg (3,300lb) of cocaine was shipwrecked off the Irish coast.
The men behind the plot tried to land 62 bales of cocaine, which weighed 1,554 kg, on a remote point of Ireland on July 2nd, 2007, using a rigid hull inflatable boat.
Prosecutors, who described the plan as “high stakes”, said the drugs were transferred to the inflatable boat from a catamaran that had crossed the Atlantic from the Caribbean.
But the boat ran out of fuel in rough seas and began to sink, leaving Gerard Hagan and Joe Daly to swim ashore near Dunlough Bay in Co Cork.
Martin Wanden had to be rescued by helicopter and was taken to hospital, where he gave a false name. Wanden, Daly and a third man, Perry Wharrie, were convicted after a trial in Cork, Ireland, while Hagan pleaded guilty.
Retired police detective Michael Daly (49) and Alan Wells (56) have also admitted their parts in the conspiracy.
Edney told the jury of six men and six women he thought the 4x4s were going to be used at a fishing complex in France and said he had no idea there was any link with a drugs plot.
But Mark Gadsden, prosecuting, alleged it was “unthinkable” that the task of providing the vehicles would have been given to someone who was not part of the conspiracy.
PA