Box of baby clothes sent to Nottingham contained cocaine

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Box of baby clothes sent to Nottingham contained cocaine, jury hears

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A SISTER and brother were arrested for trying to import cocaine worth up to £300,000 from Ecuador inside a box of baby clothes.

Nottingham Crown Court heard the box was intercepted by police before it arrived at the house in Kentwood Road, Sneinton, where Emma Morley and her brother Terrence lived.

A Royal Mail missed delivery card was then pushed through the siblings' door, which listed a telephone number for them to ring to collect the package.

The call actually went through to an undercover police officer and the pair were arrested when they went to collect the parcel from Beeston delivery office last July.

The cocaine found in the lining of the cardboard box was 90 per cent pure and could have been worth £300,000 if it were cut down and sold on the streets.

Terence Morley, 41, has denied a charge of trying to import the drugs. He has gone on trial alongside Hakeem Balogun, 29, of Russell Road, Forest Fields, who is charged with the same offence.

Emma Morley has pleaded guilty to the same charge and claimed she was recruited by Balogun to receive the parcel.

Richard Thatcher, prosecuting, told the jury in the trial of her brother and Balogun: "The issue here is whether they were part of that enterprise."

He said whoever sent the parcel from Ecuador must have known what was in the lining, but did not put their own name on it and needed someone in the UK to collect it on their behalf.

Prosecutors claim it was Balogun who had communicated directly with whoever sent the box from Ecuador.

Emma Morley did not have any direct contact with anyone in the country.

She denied to the prosecution that she had effectively involved her brother because he was riding "shotgun" – to make sure there was not any trouble and the parcel got back safely.

Mr Thatcher asked her when she gave her evidence: "You were going together to pick that parcel up and you were going together because you were both in on it?"

"No," she replied.

Richard Posner, defending said in his closing speech on behalf of Balogun that the only issue to be considered in this case was whether or not he knew there were drugs in the container. "He is a man of good character," he added.

[Lounge Lizard]

"He is a man of good character," he added. - that's said in EVERY court case now.