A Belfast man accused of importing an estimated £1 million worth of cannabis resin into Ireland from France told customs officials he was threatened by an illegal organisation in the North that if he did not bring the drugs in he would be shot, a jury at Wexford Circuit Court was told yesterday.
Mr Leslie Dickie (43) of Albertbridge, Belfast, said he was the victim of two punishment shootings for anti-social behaviour and showed customs officials and gardai scars on his legs, the court was told.
The accused, an unemployed French polisher, was stopped by officers of the Customs national drugs team at Rosslare Harbour as he disembarked from the Irish Ferries MV Normandy from Cherbourg, on October 1st last year in a car towing a caravan.
The court was told Customs officers using a sniffer dog uncovered 403 cellophane-wrapped slabs of cannabis in two hidden compartments in the caravan.
The case continues.