Covert audio recordings from what is alleged to have been an organised crime gang’s remote country ‘bolthole’ in the Isle of Man have been played to a jury.
The trial has heard a dramatic account of drugs being brought in by rigid inflatable boat from Holyhead, followed by a car chase through the streets of Port St Mary and up the Sloc, where suspects abandoned their vehicle and fled on foot.
Christian Mayers, of Royal Avenue West, Onchan, is accused of being the gang boss’s right-hand man.
He denies a number of drugs offences and being part of an organised criminal group (OCG).
The organisation is alleged to have been involved in bringing significant amounts of drugs to the island and removing criminal cash back to Merseyside.
Mr Mayers, 48, is charged with being concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis, possession of ketamine, being concerned in the production of cocaine and cannabis and participation in a criminal organisation.
Outlining the Crown’s case at the start of the trial at the Court of General Gaol Delivery, prosecutor Roger Kane described Mr Mayers as the ‘right-hand man’ on the Isle of Man of the Merseyside-based head of the crime gang.
He said the defendant had a supervisory role, adding that ‘those higher up in the organisation tend not to get their hands dirty’.
The jury heard that, as part of the police investigation into the OCG, a property in the south island called The Granary was put under covert surveillance by the Serious and Organised Crime Unit.
Mr Kane said The Granary, which has since changed hands, was in a remote location and surrounded by trees, making it ideal for those who valued privacy.
The Granary, he said, was ‘not a seaside retreat to take a relaxing break from life in Liverpool’ but was a ‘bolthole’ where law enforcement was unlikely to be.
Mr Mayers had taken over the tenancy from the alleged head of the OCG.
Mr Kane said covert surveillance of the property provided strong evidence that the defendant was involved in drugs.
In one audio recording he can be heard saying: ‘If I’m gonna get out of the game, and I haven’t got a constant f****** thingy supply every weekend, what are you gonna do? Go somewhere else?’
The jury was also shown covert CCTV footage from cameras installed in trees opposite The Granary.
This showed people entering and leaving the property, including those subsequently convicted of involvement with the crime gang.
The jury heard that the Crown’s case dates back to February 11, 2023, when an Onchan resident reported suspicious behaviour outside her home in Royal Avenue West.
The woman said she had looked out of her window to see a man trying the door handle of her car. Realising it was locked, he then went to a red van parked nearby, opened the passenger door and started rummaging inside.
She shouted down to him, but the man calmly finished what he was doing and walked back the way he had come.
Police attended the scene and searched the van, a Bedford Rascal owned by the defendant.
Inside, they found a large quantity of white powder in a plastic bag in the glove compartment and a significant quantity of cannabis in two vacuum-sealed bags in a cardboard box in the back.
Tests showed the white powder to be cocaine with a street value of £1,840, while the cannabis was valued at £9,906.
Mr Kane said it was likely the man seen trying the car door handles was one of the drug runners for the OCG and that the van was used as ‘a drop off and pick up point for controlled drugs’.
Just after midnight, police searched Mr Mayers’ flat in Royal Avenue West, where a quantity of ketamine was found in a kitchen cupboard.
A handwritten note on an envelope was also found in a kitchen drawer, which the Crown alleges was a blueprint for importing drugs to the island. Mr Mayers denies it is his handwriting.
The jury was told there were a number of people involved with the OCG, with several convictions already secured.
On October 25, 2023, two men travelled to Holyhead in North Wales by rigid inflatable boat (RIB), where they picked up a package containing drugs and returned to Port St Mary harbour.
Mr Kane told the jury that police were conducting surveillance of the harbour.
There was a car chase and the black Audi Q7 being pursued was abandoned in a remote area of the Sloc after a tyre was deflated when police deployed a stinger device.
Police arrived at the scene but were too late to apprehend the suspects or seize the drugs.
A Mini Cooper stopped behind the abandoned Audi and then sped off back towards Port St Mary.
The jury heard that a police cordon was placed around the Sloc area.
At around 2.45am, a blue Mini Cooper was stopped at the junction of Ballakilpheric Road and Main Road, Colby.
Mr Mayers was at the wheel. He told police he had been out for a drive, saw the ‘carry on’ up at the Sloc and turned around. He said he had experienced problems with the Mini, which he said was his girlfriend’s car.
Body-worn footage from the officer who carried out the stop was shown to the jury. It showed the windows of the Mini steamed up.
The defendant was hot and sweaty and his clothes were wet at the elbows and knees, the officer can be heard saying.
A search of the car found no drugs and a drug swipe test on the driver was also negative.
A package was later found stashed in a bush in a field just off the Sloc. It contained 0.5kg of cocaine and 3kg of cannabis, which Mr Kane described as a ‘significant seizure of drugs’.
Mr Kane said it was the prosecution’s case that the drugs were intended to be picked up later.
The trial continues.