Eight deny conspiracy to smuggle marijuana CUSTOMS officials who boarded a ship smuggling £15 million worth of cannabis found a Galgate man in the wheelhouse along with a shotgun and two air rifles, a court has heard. When Michael Stobbart was arrested and searched he was found to have £750 worth of cannabis on him for his own use, alleged Mr Henry Globe QC, prosecuting. Stobbart, 40, of Beech Avenue in Galgate on the outskirts of Lancaster, is on trial at Liverpool Crown Court along with seven other men. They all deny conspiracy to smuggle cannabis into the UK between the start of November 1993 and March 22 last year.

Mr Globe has told the jury at the beginning of the trial, expected to last ten weeks, that five other men have already pleaded guilty to their roles and others were also involved in the plot.

Eight members of the gang, including some who have already pleaded guilty, were arrested after customs officers boarded a specially adapted lifeboat and the vessel it had come from, the Woodleigh, off the Cornish coast last March.

It is alleged the lifeboat was laden with four tonnes of cannabis resin and that onboard the Woodleigh, which had been bought by the gang for £53,000, was a further £1 million worth of the drug in hessian sacks.

As well as Stobbart in the wheelhouse, four other men were also found on board. When they were interviewed they declined to answer questions said Mr Globe.

It is alleged by the prosecution that it had been intended to take the rest of the drugs consignment to North Wales where it would be collected by other members of the gang.

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.

The case continues.

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