A BIRKBY man is on trial after a customs sting centring on £30,000 of opium hidden in ornamental clocks.
A jury at Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday how five kilos of the Class A drug were found inside the clocks in a package addressed to the home of Dalton woman Cheryl Page.
The trial concerns her ex-boyfriend, Ibrahim Yusif, of Scholes Road in Birkby, who has pleaded not guilty to being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the importation of goods namely opium.
The drugs were discovered last July, by officers monitoring shipments through East Midlands Airport.
Prosecutor Diana Maudslay said the package was sent from Turkey and addressed to the home of Cheryl Page – Yusif’s then girlfriend – at her home in Langdale Drive, Dalton.
Two days after the opium was discovered by customs, an undercover officer delivered the parcel to the Dalton address.
The court heard that the officer left a card at the house after he initially tried to deliver the package.
When Miss Page returned home, she contacted her boyfriend Yusif.
He said he would be at the house in 10 minutes.
The house was being kept under observation and Yusif arrived with two other men soon after.
Arrangements were made for the parcel to be delivered again later that afternoon and, after Yusif’s girlfriend signed for the package, he allegedly picked it up.
He was walking away from the house when police officers moved in.
Following his arrest, Yusif denied any knowledge of the parcel of drugs, but said he had been expecting a package from a friend in Greece.
Miss Page told the jury that a previous package had been delivered to the house, but that contained clothes and shoes for Yusif.
She said after the second package, her daughter asked Yusif to open it but he said no.
She said Yusif told her that the package contained some gold intended for his sister.
The trial continues.
