An unrepentant drug smuggler abused a close friend

An unrepentant drug smuggler abused a close friendship and used his housemate as camouflage in a sophisticated heroin smuggling operation, a court heard.

Only months after his release from prison in South America for trafficking, Paul Fisher joined a gang attempting to bring 7.

1kg of the opiate into Britain.

The 32-year-old remained in the shadows to allow his unsuspecting friend to collect a crate and its secret contents from an air freight company near Heathrow Airport.

Danny Marsh signed for the delivery unaware he was being kept under observation by Customs officers.

Both men were arrested with two others when investigators swooped after tailing the pair into Central London.

At London’s Southwark Crown Court, Fisher, of Fratton Road, Fratton, Portsmouth, was today (WED) convicted of being knowingly concerned with the importation of pnds stlng 420,000 of heroin between February 15 and 23 this year.

Visibly relieved, Marsh, 36, at the time living at the same address, but now of Steerforth Close, Buckland, Portsmouth, was cleared of the charge.

Also convicted after a three week trial was Savas Georgiades, 32, of St Albans Road, Kentish Town, northwest London.

Hayri Iyisan, 54, of Windsor Road, Holloway, north London, changed his plea midway through the case, admitting his involvement.

Fisher, Iyisan, and Georgiades face sentence next week.

After the verdicts the court was told that in August last year, Fisher was released from a prison in the former Dutch island colony of Aruba, off the Venezuelan coast.

He had served a 15 month sentence for being concerned with others in the export of 3kg of cocaine to Amsterdam.

The court heard a ‘chunky’ load containing an industrial food mixer arrived at Heathrow from Istanbul in February this year, the drugs concealed within a ‘double skin’ of the crate’s woodwork.

Fisher and Marsh arrived to collect the ‘parcel’ and deliver it to London after it was flown into Britain by Turkish Airlines.

But after being alerted by the strong smell of varnish and woodstain, and concealed holes in the crate, Customs officers discovered the 37 thin packages of drugs.

Officers tailed a white Renault van as it drove into London, made a rendezvous with paymasters at the Euston Square Hotel, and in convoy went to a small industrial estate in Holloway.

David Green, QC, prosecuting, told how on February 22, enterprising Savas Georgiades, a Greek Cypriot, was trying to sell surplus food mixer to a fellow countryman and Hornsey baker as he was arrested.

‘He later explained he hoped to interest the baker into buying the food mixer,’ said the barrister.

Mr Green said: ‘The defendants were involved in the arrangements for the reception of the heroin in this country.

‘Iyisan must have been in direct contact with those who sent the drugs from Turkey.

‘He played an organisational role in the necessary arrangements and took steps to distance himself from what was going on.

‘

The barrister said Georgiades handled the contact with UK shippers Walker Freight Services at the airport and liaised with Fisher and Marsh, who collected the load in Fisher’s father’s van.

He said paperwork showed the load was sent from Turkey and was to be sent to Iyisan’s address – although under another name.

Mr Green told the court: ‘Customs officers examined the crate after its arrival.

‘The crate itself smelled very very strongly of varnish or woodstain and a series of holes had been drilled through the crate itself and filled with woodfiller.

‘Officers drilled a little pilot hole and that revealed a brown powder, heroin, hidden inside the crate’s double skin.

‘

As a result, Fisher and Marsh were followed from Heathrow to the hotel rendezvous, and later travelling with Iyisan’s silver Audi to a small industrial site down an alley in the Holloway road adjacent to the National Youth Theatre.

Just yards away and moments earlier, Iyisan and a friend – who was never charged – left the car and went to the ‘On A Roll Cafe’.

‘Georgiades was arrested as he walked away from the car and holding a mobile telephone in each hand,’ said Mr Green.

‘It seems he was making a call at the time, he
was calling the number of a Greek Cypriot baker and hoped to interest the baker in buying the industrial mixer.

‘

Marsh was arrested next to the van, in his possession was an identity card for his employers, a ship-cleaning company at Portsmouth docks – the same card was allegedly used as identification with a ‘badly typed’ letter of authorisation to collect the load.

Fisher was also arrested near the van.

On a piece of paper were written the name and address of the freight forwarders, their telephone number, the ‘airway bill’ for the load, the flight number and telephone number of Turkish Airlines.

Mr Green added: ‘For good measure he has his Lottery numbers written down as well.

‘

After their arrests, Iyisan admitted organising the importation of machinery but said he knew nothing about drugs.

Georgiades said he had met Iyisan six years earlier through his hairdresser wife and agreed to help collect the machine – even believing he could possibly sell it.

He was to add: ‘I made a mistake.

‘

Fisher said he was asked by a London-based friend ‘Tom’ if he could collect the crate from the airport, offered pnds stlng 160 in return for his trouble.

He claimed without sufficient identity to collect the shipment, he promised his Marsh ‘a drink’ to accompany him and use his identity card to gain the release of the crate.

But Mr Green told the court how Fisher knowingly wanted to distance himself from making the ‘dodgy’ collection – recruiting Marsh to enter the warehouse and use his identification, conveniently ‘losing’ his passport.

He said Fisher was in contact with the freight company, inventing the name ‘D&P Courier Services’ – a ‘joke name’ standing for ‘Danny and Paul’ – to add a veneer of respectability to the venture.

The barrister said Marsh was sent into the warehouse to complete the formalities while Fisher hovered outside, ready to make a swift exit had anything gone wrong.

ends