A GANG of highly organised drug smugglers caught off the Cornish coast with £15 million worth of cannabis resin had a man from Galgate as a member, a court has heard. And it has been alleged that Michael Stobbart, of Beech Avenue in Galgate, and his cohorts had made a previous journey to the Mediterranean on another smaller boat and successfully brought drugs into the country. Members of the gang were intercepted and arrested by customs officers on March 21 last year while heading for the Cornish coast in a lifeboat.

They were found to be carrying 4,100kg of cannabis and a further 300kg was found still on board their boat the Woodleigh, claimed Mr Henry Globe QC prosecuting in the case at Liverpool Crown Court this week.

He said: "It was a large scale operation which required a large number of people to carry it out."

Eight men, including Michael Stobbart, are currently in the dock and have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to smuggle cannabis resin into the UK. Five others have already pleaded guilty, another has been arrested but is not in court and the fifteenth is living abroad.

Mr Globe claimed that each member of the gang had, at one stage or another, joined in the plan to smuggle drugs from the Mediterranean area to the UK.

He added: "Some were involved for longer periods than others, some involved more extensively than others but each played a significant role in the organisation."

The case continues.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.