Smuggling 'brains' trial starts
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• The man described by the prosecution as the "brains" behind a drug smuggling gang that used innocent truck drivers to carry drugs into the UK has gone on trial at Harrow Crown Court.
Robert Kean of Reepham Road, Norwich denies knowingly smuggling 390kg of cannabis resin worth around £1.3m into the country in November 1994. The prosecution alleges that Kean, together with two other men, Michael Adams and John Newley, created a fake company to smuggle the drugs from Spain in a consignments of sofas. Last week Adams and Newly pleaded guilty to the some charge.
Mukul Chewla, prosecuting, told the court that the three men had been charged after a long undercover operation by Customs & Excise. It started when a bag Kean had checked on to a plane bound for Spain was found to contain a large quantity of cash. Chowla said the prosecution would show that Kean had been the "brains" behind the operation and had been as involved as Adams and Newly. The court heard that when Customs officials checked bags belonging to Adams and Kean as they flew out to Spain on another occasion, they found more cash than "they were able to count in the time they had available". It is alleged that the money was used to buy the drugs, which were then placed inside sofas stored in a warehouse near Valencia. The gang then contracted Hayes-based haulage firm Pan Express via a freight forwarder, and driver Raymond Dunning innocently delivered the load of sofas to Norwich.
When Customs followed the load to Norwich and tried to arrest all three men in a street near the depot Kean allegedly evaded capture by ramming a car driven by Customs officers, mounting the pavement and driving off at speed. He was arrested 10 days later. The trial is expected to last four weeks.