£1m ecstasy haul discovered in car boot and hotel room after M6 halt, court hears
More than £1 million worth of drugs were collected from a warehouse in Brownhills and taken to a hotel where they were stuffed inside two suitcases, a court heard.
Some of the 34kg haul of ecstasy was recovered in a car boot when police pulled over a vehicle on the M6 services near junction 11 at Cannock while more was found in the booked room in Stafford, it was said.
Five men and women are now standing trial at Stafford Crown Court accused of the conspiracy to supply Class A drugs last year.
Mr Matthew Brook, prosecuting said Charles Hendrie and Leah Parkes had travelled down from Manchester to Stafford in a hired van on November 6.
He said the couple stopped at the Holiday Inn in Acton Gate where they were joined by another of the accused Mark Harrington who had travelled down in a separate car.
From there the court was told Hendrie and Harrington set off separately in convoy towards Brownhills while Parkes booked into a room at the hotel.
Harrington was said to have stopped in the High Street while Hendrie continued to a warehouse in Maybrook Road, after receiving instructions from another man he was in contact with.
But the hearing was told police surveillance officers had been monitoring this man.
It was at the warehouse where the MDMA, most commonly known as ecstasy, was said picked up.
Hendrie then went back towards Harrington and they returned to the hotel in Stafford, where they swapped vehicles.
Mr Brook said: "It is worth more than £260,000 in bulk. Split up into small deals it is over a million pounds worth of Class A drugs."
Once at Acton Gate, Adib Asfour, of Wolverhampton, arrived and went to the room with another unidentified man but left 10 minutes later.
Hendrie and Parkes left half-an-hour later with one suitcase and they were approached at the services at Hilton Park by police and arrested. The second suitcase containing drugs was found at the hotel.
The following day an email was sent to the Holiday Inn claiming to be Parkes saying a bag had been left behind.
It stated it was to be collected by Chloe Arrowsmith who duly arrived and went on to be arrested.
Hendrie, aged 30, of Prospect Place, Bury; Parkes, 28, of the same address; Harrington, 28, of Wensely Road, Salford; Asfour, 26, of Kinlet Close, Wolverhampton and Arrowsmith, 25, of Manor Royal Drive, London, are accused of conspiracy to supply a controlled drug between October 1 and November 8.
The trial continues.
