Police who smashed a heroin dealing syndicate a
Police who smashed a heroin dealing syndicate
after a bloody gangland shoot-out found a huge cache of the killer drug diluted to sell on the streets, a court heard today.
Rival dealers wearing bullet-proof vests and brandishing sub machine guns allegedly turned Lewisham into a ‘war zone’ as they fought over the lucrative business.
During the gun-battle feuding gangsters exchanged fire until one man was shot in the genitals, the court has heard.
Investigations after the fire fight led police to a drugs, weapons and a heroin trafficking operation centred in Barnet.
Richmond Oduku, 22, was injured in the battle but escaped with his friend Spencer Dillon in a Volkswagen Polo.
Police surveillance ended with coordinated raids on addresses and cars connected to Oduku and drug-dealing colleagues Desmond Black, 23, and Edwin Appiah, 24, the court has heard.
Officers discovered heroin valued at more than pnds stlg 100,000, kitchen pans, scales and mixers used to cut the drug with paracetamol, it is alleged.
A police scientist today described how he was called in to examine drug packages along with a special home-made press used to compact the heroin for sale.
Michael Griffin said numerous parcels of a brown powder he tested proved to be heroin cut, or mixed with paracetamol and caffeine.
The expert said the average purity of the drug, also known as diamorphine, ranged between 36 and 47 percent.
‘I think it would be fair to say that they all fall within the range you would encounter on the street,’
Mr Griffin.
‘Between 30 and 60 percent diamorphine would be typical for a street heroin addict.
‘
A search of a Vauxhall Astra allegedly used by the gang to store drugs and guns revealed three parcels.
These tested positive for heroin weighing just under a kilo, Mr Griffin said.
Officers found the packets inside a blue Nike bag stashed in the boot of the vehicle.
A tiny trace was also found on a sports bag found in a bedroom at Thomas Gibb Mews.
‘The front compartment had residue in it which was swabbed with solvent and diamorphine was found on the swab,’ said the witness.
Mr Griffin said experts examined a dismantled metal press found at an address in Greenway Close, Barnet.
‘We had it in the laboratory and we were asked to reconstruct the press to see how it worked.
‘
The jury was shown a video in which scientists rebuilt the equipment and used it to illustrate how dealers processed the drug.
Mr Griffin said experts used brown sugar in the reinactment to make a solid block weighing half a kilo.
A kilo of heroin would cost pnds stlg 25,000 wholesale but would sell for pnds stlg 70,000 on the street, the jury was told.
Three items thrown from a window of a house in Alexander Close, Barnet, also contained heroin cut with caffeine and paracetamol, confirmed Mr Griffin.
The jury has heard a loaded sub machinegun two 9mm pistols and .
22 revolver were also found in the raid.
Oduku, Black and Appiah were part of a group which prepared and supplied heroin from bases in north London, it is alleged.
Oduku, of Thomas Dibb Mews, Beckton, east London, and Dillon, of Cheviot Road, West Norwood, deny two counts of possession of firearms.
Oduku, Black, of [59] Alexander Close, Barnet, and Appiah, of [73] Clarence Close, Barnet, deny conspiracy to supply class A drugs, conspiracy to possess firearms.
Black denies two further counts of possession of a firearm and one of possession of ammunition and Appiah denies another count of possession of a firearm.
The trial continues.
ends
