Pair deny cocaine charge

Customs X-rayed the bulldozer blade and found cocaine inside

A father and son from north Wales have denied trying to import the largest shipment of cocaine seized by UK customs.

Rex Newport, 57, of Dyffryn Ardudwy, and his son Duncan Newport, 36, of Dyffryn, in Gwynedd appeared with two other men at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

They were charged after customs officers tracked a shipment of 651kg of cocaine found inside a bulldozer blade which had arrived from South America.

The November 2002 seizure, worth £55m, was the largest at that time.

Stuart Lawson-Rogers QC, prosecuting, said docks staff at Felixstowe, Suffolk, became suspicious of the cargo of bulldozer equipment, which also included tyres and tracks.

He said X-rays revealed the blade had been welded shut around hollows which, when drilled, were found to contain cocaine powder.

The consignment was allowed to continue its journey to an industrial estate in Wolverhampton, the court heard.

Plant machinery

Mr Lawson-Rogers said: "It is the prosecution's case that these defendants were primarily concerned with arrangements for the drugs, their reception in the UK, the unloading and the delivery of these drugs to others at the distribution level.

"This case involved large-scale commercial drug trafficking between South America and the UK."

He told the court the defendants had made an earlier attempt to import drugs, in August 2001, but this had failed when they could not find anybody in Argentina to sign for the exported plant machinery.

The other defendants, Louis Hillard, 56, of no fixed address, and Mark Reeves, 38, of Blakedown, Worcestershire, also denied conspiracy to import a Class A drug over an 18-month period.

The trial is expected to last six weeks.