Drugs conspiracy trial jury goes out

The jury has gone out to deliberate its verdict on the trial of eight men charged with conspiracy to supply drugs across the North East.

All eight of the men, from Hartlepool, South Shields, Sunderland and East Durham, deny conspiring to supply cocaine between August 18, 2015, and July 26, 2016.

The trial has been under way at Teesside Crown Court since November with Judge Peter Armstrong finishing his summing up yesterday morning before the jury left the court.

The defendants are: Alan Baines, 33, of Meryl Gardens, Hartlepool, Graham Wilding, 33, of Warren Road, Hartlepool, Gary Mitchell, 42, of Pinedale Drive, South Hetton; Stephen Horner, 24, of Frederick Terrace, South Hetton; Christopher Hickson, 35, of Gloucester Terrace, Haswell; Darren Gates, 49, of Chaucer Avenue, Biddick Hall, South Shields; Dean Pringle, 34, of Little Eden, Peterlee, and an eighth man who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The court had previously heard the arrests followed a Durham Constabulary investigation, code-named Operation Ebony.

The prosecution said the defendant Gary Mitchell played the lead role in organising the alleged conspiracy which centred around South Hetton and a number of other villages, including Haswell and Haswell Plough.

During the trial the jury had been told that two consignments of drugs, valued at more than £100,000, had been seized.

Before the jury left the courtroom to start their deliberations, the judge told them: “You may take as long as you need, you are not under any pressure of time at all.”