High security as jurors view huge cocaine haul

A MAJOR security operation was mounted yesterday to allow the jurors in a drug-smuggling trial to view cocaine found on a tugboat.

The street outside the High Court in Glasgow was barricaded off to allow 129 bales of the class A drug to be brought in by police.

The haul was found on the MV Hamal when it was boarded in international waters 100 miles off Aberdeen in an operation involving a Royal Navy warship and a Border Force cutter.

Border Force officer Lee Butler told the court he and other members of the specialist ‘deep rummage’ team searched the tug when it arrived in Aberdeen Harbour in April last year. He said 129 bales were found in a ballast area at the front of the ship.

In a highly unusual move, the cocaine was brought to court for the jury to view. Mart Street outside the court was closed while it was being taken inside.

A secure area was set up in the corridor outside Court 3 and the 14 jurors were able to see the cocaine and examine the labels on the bales, which measured two feet by one foot.

The bales of cocaine covered an area of 12ft x 10ft and was 4ft high. Each bale was individually sealed in plastic evidence bags.

The jurors spent ten minutes looking at the bales before the drugs were taken back to a secret location where they are being stored.

The nine-strong Turkish crew of the MV Hamal are on trial accused of being involved in an international drug-smuggling operation.

They are charged with smuggling cocaine from Istanbul via Tenerife to South America, then to the North Sea, between February and April 2015.

They are further alleged to have been concerned in the supply of the Class A drug between April 21 and 23, 2015.

Kayacan Dalgakiran, 64, Mustafa Guven, 48, Mustafa Ceviz, 55, Umit Colakel, 39, Ibrahim Dag, 48, Mumin Sahin, 46, Emin Ozmen, 51, Abdulkadir Cirik, 32, and Muhammet Seckin, 27, deny the charges against them.

The case continues.