Eight in court over drug smuggling flight at Blackpool Airport
05.10.07
Eight members of an alledge drug smuggling gang who used a small plane to fly in over £1m worth of cocaine from Northern France to Blackpool Airport were in court this week. At the trial the court was told that it was not the first time that they had used the method to smuggle in drugs into the UK.
On the first time the gang used a small plane to fly drugs into the UK, the cargo was undetected, the court was told. But when group tried a second time, its aircraft landed at Blackpool Airport on February 24 last year, but the authorities were waiting and the pilot and two passengers were arrested.
One of the passengers, James Horvat, 54, from Staffordshire, was the drugs courier and a suitcase was found onboard the plane containing a massive 18 kilos of cocaine, worth around £1.2m. Also in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court are the plane's pilot, Philip Barton, 28, from Wigan, his friend Karl Fernandez, 24, also from Wigan.
Alongside them are 4 other men, two of them pilots, and a woman, who are also alleged to have been involved in the plot. They all deny conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the UK.
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