Court told of ecstasy plot
By Sunita Patel A Shropshire man and his brother were part of a plot to smuggle more than one million ecstasy tablets into the country with a street value of £5 million to £15 million, a crown court heard.
Keith Raymond Spartley, 50, of Glyn Morlas, Oswestry, and Malcolm Philip Spartley, 52, of Opheusden, Holland, are alleged to have arranged for the drug to be shipped from the Netherlands.
They plotted to import 217 kilos of ecstasy tablets - branded with 'Bacardi bat' and 'Euro' logos - hidden in a consignment of ceramics, prosecutor Miss Tanya Woolls alleged.
Both men deny conspiring to import ecstasy and two further charges of possessing cannabis with intent to supply.
She told Woolwich Crown Court the conspiracy came to light after staff at the Dutch and English shipping companies involved, Van Thiel and central London-based Caffins, became suspicious of the arrangement.
Miss Woolls said Dutch police were contacted, a decision to open the cargo was taken and the stash of drugs was discovered.
But both companies maintained the pretence the shipment was still going to take place, she claimed.
She said: "Keith Spartley had a courier role, to collect the consignment when it arrived and take it to his home address. Malcolm Spartley was there to oversee the operation and assist his brother in the repackaging and onward delivery of the drugs. Together they were in this as brothers and partners in crime."
On February 22, leaving his brother who had flown in from Holland the night before at his Shropshire home, Keith Spartley drove to Caffins in a hired van, where he was arrested.
His home was searched where officers not only found his brother, but also a shed containing evidence that there had been an identical earlier consignment, said Miss Woolls.
She added: "Following their arrests, other unidentified co-conspirators tried to find out not only where the defendants had gone, but also where the drugs had gone."
The trial continues.
