£1bn drugs ring hid cocaine in frozen chicken, court told

Prosecutors said "blocks and blocks and blocks" of cocaine were found at a flat in Leeds

A drugs ring smuggled cocaine worth more than £1bn into the UK in boxes of frozen chicken, a court has heard.

"Vast" shipments of the drug were unpacked at a warehouse in Redditch, near Birmingham, and distributed around the UK, prosecutors said.

Packages worth £25m were found at two addresses in Leeds and Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, a jury was told.

Two women and two men are on trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Cherie-Anne Rayner, 29, Liam Harrington, 38, Megan Budden, 22, and Mazafer Hussain, 43, are alleged to have had trusted roles in a "high-end" criminal network which imported high-purity cocaine from a Mexican cartel and sold it on to dealers.

Five men from Leeds, Dewsbury, Glasgow and Birmingham have admitted drug supply charges.

'Huge quantities'

Prosecutor Stephen Grattage told the jury "blocks and blocks and blocks" of the drug, as well as a note bearing the name of the Nueva Generacion Cartel, were found in Ms Rayner and Mr Harrington's flat in Flaxton Street in Beeston, Leeds.

Police who raided the property on 10 September last year discovered 141kg of cocaine with an estimated street value of £14.1m in a locked room along with 33kg of crystal methamphetamine worth nearly £5m.

Scales, gloves, a vacuum wrapping machine, safes and an accounts book with details of "a commodity being exchanged in tonnes" were also found behind the locked door of the couple's bedroom, Mr Grattage said.

Crystal methamphetamine worth nearly £5m was found at the flat in Leeds

A further 57kg of cocaine worth £5.8m was found stashed in holdalls, plastic bags, cupboards and the bedroom in Ms Budden's flat in The Crescent, Dewsbury, during a raid on 10 November, the court heard.

Prosecutors said Ms Budden's partner, Brandon Maan, 23, and Ms Rayner's brother Stephen Rayner, 30, who worked for an unknown drugs kingpin identified on phones and social media only as "Fendi".

Mr Rayner was Fendi's "manager on the ground," while Maan was paid a wage of thousands of pounds a month to store and repackage "huge quantities" of cocaine and transport it around the country, the jury heard.

"It is the Crown's case that Megan Budden supported [Maan] in these activities, travelling with him, storing the drugs and guarding them, helping to move drugs when required," Mr Grattage said.

Mr Hussain, of Foxton Road, Birmingham, is alleged to have worked at the Fendi organisation's distribution "hub" - an industrial unit in Spring Street, Redditch, which the court heard received deliveries of cocaine concealed in pallets of imported frozen chicken.

The prosecutor said a "conservative estimate" had put the street value of the drugs imported through the warehouse at £1bn.

Cocaine found in the Flaxton Street flat bore the name of a Mexican cartel

Mr Hussain was arrested on 15 December last year after a van which had left the premises earlier that day was stopped by police and found to be carrying 75kg of frozen cocaine in four holdalls.

The court heard the van's driver, Stephen Gibson, would drive from Scotland to collect drugs from the warehouse and pass them on to others, including Maan.

Earlier that day he been seen handing two holdalls to another man, Darren Hunter, who was also stopped by officers and found to be in possession of 48kg of cocaine.

Police who raided the Spring Street warehouse found Mr Hussain and an alleged co-conspirator, Tabrez Hussain, 39, loading a van with boxes of frozen chicken. Some of the boxes were marked and had been opened, the court heard.

In the warehouse officers also found holdalls of the same brand and type as those filled with drugs in Mr Gibson and Mr Hunter's vehicles and in Ms Budden's flat, the jury was told.

The defendants are on trial at Sheffield Crown Court

The four defendants standing trial have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Mr Harrington and Ms Raynor also deny possession of cocaine and possession of crystal methamphetamine with intent to supply, while Ms Budden denies possession of a class A drug with intent to supply. All three told police they were unaware the drugs were in their flats, the court heard.

Maan, of Churchbank Way, Dewsbury, and Stephen Raynor, of Scargill Grange, Leeds, have both admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Gibson, of Belsyde Avenue, Glasgow, and Tabrez Hussain, of Cuthbert Road, Birmingham, have each pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.

Hunter, of Queenslie Street, Glasgow, has admitted possession of cocaine with intent to supply.

The trial continues.