Irish man in UK drug smuggling trial

The jury in the trial of an Irish-born man who is accused of smuggling cocaine into Britain, is due to retire today to consider…

The jury in the trial of an Irish-born man who is accused of smuggling cocaine into Britain, is due to retire today to consider a verdict.

It is alleged Brian Brendan Wright (60) was the head of the "Wright Organisation", overseeing shipments of cocaine worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

The gang allegedly used luxury yachts to import the cocaine from Venezuela, via the Caribbean, to the United Kingdom and Ireland.

During the two-month trial in London, the jury was told that in September 1996, one yacht, the Sea Mist, was allegedly discovered carrying almost 600 kilos of cocaine as she arrived in Co Cork.

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Mr Wright, a well-known figure in horse-racing circles, who lived in Chelsea, west London, fled to northern Cyprus in 1999, the court heard. He was arrested when he went to Spain in 2005.

The prosecution claim he used horse-racing as a "facade" to disguise the real source of his wealth.