A self-employed window repair man has denied playing a leading role in an organised crime group.

Christian Mayers, 50, of Ashley Park, Onchan, has pleaded not guilty to being concerned in the importation and supply of cocaine and cannabis, possession of ketamine, and participation in a criminal organisation.

The prosecution accuse him of being the ‘right-hand man’ for the Liverpool-based head of a crime gang responsible for bringing significant amounts of drugs to the island and removing criminal cash back to Merseyside.

It activities included a shipment of drugs in October 2023 by rigid inflatable boat from Holyhead to Port St Mary. Some £160,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis was later found stashed in a bush by the Sloc after the gang’s Audi was abandoned following a police chase.

But taking the stand on the fourth day of his trial the Court of General Gaol Delivery, Mr Mayers denied knowing that alleged gang boss Dean McLeod was involved in criminality.

He told the jury that he had met Mr McLeod in a ‘random’ pub in Liverpool three years ago and they had become close friends.

The defendant told the jury that Mr McLeod had taken on the tenancy of The Granary - said by the prosecution to be the gang’s secluded country ‘bolt hole’ - and would visit ‘may be once a month’.

Associates would also visit and he would provide the keys, he said.

Mr Mayers said he would go to The Granary himself quite a lot, particularly at weekends. He subsequently took over the tenancy. ‘It was a nice place, I loved going there,’ he told the court.

The jury has heard audio recordings from inside the property taken as part of a covert police investigation codenamed Operation Voodoo.

In them, Mr Mayers can be heard talking about ‘getting out of the game’. Asked about this by defence advocate Stephen Wood, the defendant insisted that ‘the game’ was not referring to any involvement in drugs supply but about his weekend use of cocaine.

The prosecution allege that on the night the drugs were shipped in by rib to Port St Mary, a Mini Cooper driven by Mr Mayers was seen by police stopped by the abandoned Audi on the Sloc before speeding back towards Port St Mary.

Mr Mayers said he ‘absolutely refuted’ this.

Police set up a cordon around the area and at 2.45am the following morning, the defendant was stopped in his girlfriend’s blue Mini as he headed down the Ballakilpheric Road.

Mr Mayers told the jury that he had gone for a test drive after he had tried to fix the car’s electrical fault.

‘I suggest you explanation defies all logic,’ prosecutor Roger Kane put to him. ‘I would not agree,’ he replied.

The jury has seen CCTV footage of Mr Mayers on North Quay, Douglas, apparently looking down at the rib that was to be used in the drugs shipment.

Giving his evidence, Mr Mayers said that he had gone to North Quay to check out the potential for advertising on the front of the Yacht Club.

In February 2023, following reports of car door handles being tried on Royal Avenue West, Onchan, police searched a red Bedford Rascal van owned by the defendant which had been parked opposite his then home.

Inside they found a bag of cocaine in the glove compartment and a significant quantity of cannabis in two vacuum-sealed bags in a cardboard box in the back.

Mr Mayers told the jury that he was ‘shocked’ to be informed that drugs had been found in his unlocked van.

He dismissed as ‘ridiculous’ the Crown’s suggestion that his company van had been used for the drop off and pick up of drugs, given that his name was ‘plastered all over it’.

When police searched his flat on Royal Avenue West, a quantity of ketamine was found in a kitchen cupboard with a bag of body supplements. 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 denied it was his handwriting and said he had no idea how the ketamine came to be there, describing it as a ‘young people’s drug’.

‘I’m 50 and my idea of a good night out is not taking a horse tranquiliser,’ he said.

The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdicts this afternoon (Wednesday).