Cocaine hid in designer bags

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POLICE have smashed a drugs ring that smuggled cocaine into the region from India inside counterfeit designer handbags.

Staff at an airport uncovered the plot and alerted North Yorkshire Police, who set a trap.

Class A drugs worth more than £38,000 had been stitched inside the linings of the fake Dolce and Gabbana and Chanel bags.

Security staff at Coventry Airport intercepted the package last October and found 192.7 grammes of cocaine of 36 per cent purity.

The airport alerted police and officers replaced the powder with flour, Shaun Dodds , prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court.

The package, posted in Goa, had been addressed to Mike Reynolds, at a property in Bedale Road, Scotton.

But the occupier of the North Yorkshire address since October 2009 had been John Elliott, 25 – a member of the gang.

An undercover policeman posing as a postman delivered the parcel, and it was signed for by Zoe Clark, in the false name of Smith.

A short time later, Matthew Thompson, 21, arrived at the house in a Ford Focus and collected 17-year-old Clark and the parcel.

Mr Dodds told Judge Tony Briggs that police tracked the pair as they travelled to Darlington, where Clark left the car.

The Focus continued to an Asda car park, where it was met by Ross Hemington, 24, in a Vauxhall Vectra.

The court was told that the cars went on to Feetham Avenue, Darlington.

Police raided the premises and found the pair along with Richard Williams, 17, in an upstairs bedroom.

Mr Dodds said: “The packages had been removed and the contents scattered on the bed, floor and window in an attempt to throw the substance out of the window.

“There were some scales on the floor in the bedroom. Effectively, the Crown says that the defendants were caught bang to rights.”

Clark said she had been told to go with her then boyfriend Thompson and sign for the package in a false name. She said she knew that Hemington sold drugs.

Brian Russell, mitigating, said Hemington was jailed for five years in February for robbery, and asked the judge to consider the totality of the sentence by reducing the consecutive sentence.

Rod Hunt, mitigating for Clark, said that she was horrified by the enormity of what she had done.

Judge Tony Briggs told Hemington: “Cocaine brings a lot of misery to a lot of people, it fuels a lot of crime, and those involved need a lot of help in order to transport and store it.”

Hemington, of Railway Court, McNay Street, Darlington, was jailed for three years and nine months – consecutive to his five-year sentence – after he pleaded guilty to attempted possession of cocaine with intent to supply.

Clark, of Woodlands Way, Darlington, and Thompson of Cook Close, Brompton-on- Swale, near Northallerton, pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Elliott, of St John’s Road, Catterick, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine; and Williams, of Feetham Avenue, Darlington, admitted attempted possession of cocaine.

Thompson and Elliott were both jailed for 15 months; while and Clark and Williams were given two years youth rehabilitation orders. Clark was given two years of supervision and a 90-day activities requirement, and Williams was ordered to undergo 12 months of supervision.

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15 months for importing class A drugs seems very lenient to me.