Drugs accused 'trusted member' of crime gang: court told
A Dublin DJ charged in connection with the seizure of £3 million of heroin and banned pills in Derry claims he was in the area to play at a party, the High Court has been told.
Prosecutors alleged that Anthony Morgan (28) was a trusted member of a crime organisation involved in large-scale drugs transportation.
Morgan, of Eaton Green, Rathcoole, faces charges of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.
He has been refused bail.
Crown counsel Sheena Mahaffey said he was arrested with a woman and another man after a lorry and van believed to be travelling in convoy were stopped on Derry's Foyle Bridge last July.
Eight kilos of 70% pure heroin, with a potential street value of 2 million, was discovered in the lorry cab.
Also found were 210,000 suspected Ecstasy tablets which turned out to be so-called "legal-highs" of a type subsequently banned. These were worth an estimated 1 million.
Police also recovered 4,400 Euro from the woman who was with Morgan in the van.
During questioning, he claimed the pair travelled to Strabane and booked into a hotel following an arrangement through the Bebo networking site to perform at a club, the court heard.
The money was allegedly to be used to buy a car if they spotted one "by the side of the road".
Morgan claimed he and the woman went out to get food in Derry, but got lost for three and a half hours because they were unfamiliar with the area. He denied making calls to arrange any meeting.
However, Mrs Mahaffey said the Garda National Drugs Unit indicated 4,000 Euros was about the going rate for paying lorry drivers to take drugs across the Irish border.
Mobile phone billing records are also being analysed as part of the Crown case that all three suspects were involved in a joint enterprise.
The court heard the lorry driver told detectives he was contacted and met a man at a lay-by in the Campsie area, but decided the location was too dark to make the drugs transaction.
Police stopped the vehicles after they travelled further along the road, it was alleged.
Opposing Morgan's bid for bail, Mrs Mahaffey said: "Police believe the applicant is a trusted member of a criminal organisation, with a position of responsibility within that organisation, given the money, mobile phones and the fact he was trusted to move drugs valued at 3 million."
Michael Boyd, defending, stressed that his client denied any knowledge of the drugs and claimed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The barrister said Morgan and the woman had gone to spend a few days in Strabane after meeting some people from Derry on holiday.
"One of them asked the applicant, who is a practising DJ, to perform at one of their parties at a bar," Mr Boyd told the court.
"They had gone back to the hotel in Strabane and were waiting to hear from the man where the venue was."
Despite being told an address at Tate's Avenue, Belfast was available, Lord Justice Coghlin refused to release Morgan on bail.
The judge added: "This is obviously an extremely serious case of importing a very large number of drugs worth an awful lot of money."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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