Edmond Okoli

On trial is Edmond Okoli, 43, of Tyrrell Road, London, who denies smuggling cocaine into Scotland in November 2005 and being concerned in the supply of the drug.cocaine with a potential street value of £500,000 was uncovered hidden in wooden packaging at Edinburgh Airport, a court heard.
The drugs were hidden by "very professional" drug smugglers, a jury at the city's High Court was told yesterday. They heard that police and customs officers searching through cheap vases from Peru drew a blank – until they turned their attention to the wooden packaging.
Some of the slats making up six wooden crates in a warehouse at Edinburgh Airport revealed a suspicious shadow when x-rayed.
The court heard the searchers noticed three lengths of wood in each of the crates was a slightly different colour. A total of six kilos of cocaine had been hidden in the wood. After the cocaine had been seized the crates were put back together, he said, and a bug was added to eavesdrop on conversations when they were picked up.
A white Toyota van was stopped as it headed south on the M74, with Okoli inside the court was told. .