Chris Johnston secures acquittal in major drugs conspiracy with a street value of £8m.

Chris Johnston secures acquittal in major drugs conspiracy involving one tonne of cannabis and 130,000 Class C tablets with a street value of £8m.

Chris represented a mechanic who, along with others, was charged with an eighteen months’ long conspiracy to import huge quantities of class B & C from Holland on an industrial scale . Officers from the Serious and Organised Crime Command of The Metropolitan Police had been monitoring the movements of an organised criminal gang for several months and unearthed freight shipments via the UK ports from the continent dating back eighteen months. The acquitted defendant was the alleged warehouseman who had stored 14 such shipments in his industrial unit with the assistance of local “fixer” or transport man and an overall manager, based in Cardiff.

The case involved covert surveillance, phone cell siting and detailed analysis of the continuity of the consignments from various locations in Holland. When officers raided his unit in September 2016 they arrested two workers, he’d left minutes earlier, who were caught unloading eight packing crates full of cannabis and class C tablets. These were destined for onward supply within the UK.

The case was further linked to other drugs conspiracies both before and after the indicted period for other class B & C drugs. Following a five weeks’ trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court the jury took less than an hour to clear the client of both conspiracies he faced. In the event of conviction a sentence in double figures was expected, but thankfully avoided.

Chris Johnston

 

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