After one of the longest trials to ever take place at Wood Green Crown Court, Alphege Bell, as Leading Counsel, secures acquittal of his client in a case of industrial supply of very high purity cocaine.

Leading Counsel, Alphege Bell was assisted by Alejandro Llorente Tascon of 5KBW in a trial with high profile defendants lasting 8 months. The Crown alleged that the client, along with a large number of other individuals, was part of a very prominent organised crime group responsible for supplying enormous quantities of very pure cocaine across the best part of a year.

The Crown were not able to quantify the total weight supplied in these multi-kilo deals of cocaine and other types of illegal drug. A specialist unit was put together to investigate and prosecute these alleged offences. The police conducted very sophisticated surveillance with an elite police squad using video and photography. Officers gave evidence and were cross examined exhaustively by the defence as to whether they had witnessed the client in exchanges of high value drugs.

The Crown alleged the use of machinery including a hydraulic press to manufacture kilo upon kilo blocks of cocaine embossed with a logo for quality control and branding in the drug world. The evidence in the case ran to 100,000s pages of evidence. There was some peripheral element of encro chat analysis. A lot of the Crown evidence was built on the product of interrogation of ordinary internet enabled phones. The Crown also relied on photos and videos showing multiple kilos of cocaine and thousands of cash bundles.

The client was unanimously acquitted.

Alphege was instructed by Ben Darabi of Carson Kaye.