‘Oh, cocaine’

A Spaniard accused of smuggling £41m worth of class A drugs into the UK on a luxury private jet was ‘shocked’ when officers identified cocaine in his luggage, a court heard.

Victor Franco-Lorenzo, 40, and four others were found with the drugs on January 29 after Border Force officials swooped at Farnborough Airport, Hants.

The gang, which includes Dorset bricklayer brothers Stephen Neil, 53, and Martin, 48, are accused of importing 513 packages of the class A drug packed inside 15 suitcases on the flight from Bogotá.

Franco-Lorenzo is accused of involvement in the smuggling plot alongside the Neils, Italian Allesandro Iembo, 28, and fellow Spaniard Juan Miguela-Botas, 56.

He told jurors of his shock when a Border Force officer pulled a block of cocaine from his bag.

Franco-Lorenzo said: ‘I thought if it was what what I imagined it couldn’t be true.

‘I asked the officer “what is that?”

‘The officer said “you are coming from Colombia and you don’t know what that is?”

‘That is when I said: “oh cocaine.”

‘I couldn’t believe what was happening to me and I couldn’t believe what I was imagining could be true.

‘In that moment I was shocked.

‘I feel betrayed and very bad because somebody lied to me.’

Franco-Lorenzo told jurors today (mon) that he wasn’t concerned that he didn’t see his suitcases during his two day stay in Bogotá.

‘My suitcases were never with me during that weekend,’ he said.

‘Firstly, we arrived very late so we all wanted to go to bed and we had arranged for them to be sent to somebody’s room.

‘My suitcase was in Alessandro’s room – well I imagine so but I’m not 100%, I assumed they were.

‘I trusted the person who was looking after my suitcase. I was never worried about that.’

Franco-Lorenzo, Iembo and Martin Neil first travelled to Bogotá by private jet on 8 December, it is said.

The £128,000 flights were booked with Diamonte Jets by a woman called Claire Harris and paid for in cash, jurors have heard.

Harris told the private jet charter company that the first booking was for ‘leaders in the field of cryptocurrency, involved in the music industry and were meeting Bruno Mars.’

Franco-Lorenzo told the court that he thought he was working for a charity called ‘One Young World.’

But he said on both trips their ‘meetings’ that had been setup were abruptly cancelled.

He added: ‘I thought somebody may be fired because for it to happen once is ok but twice that is very strange.’

The second trip, this time with all five defendants, was paid for in cash by Harris on 18 January.

Stephen and Martin Neil, of Bournemouth Road, Poole, deny fraudulent evasion of a prohibition of importation of drugs.

Jose Miguela-Botas, of Valladolid, Spain, Allesandro Iembo, of Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, and Victor Franco-Lorenzo, of Stour Walk Road, Bournemouth, deny the same charge.

The trial continues.