TWO men have been found guilty of trying to smuggle 18 kilos of cocaine from Bolivia to Torquay.

Welder Mark Lang, 37, of Pendennis Road, Torquay, and farmhand Peter Ferguson, 57, from Liverpool, brought drugs with a street value of £2.2million into the country.

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The cocaine was hidden in the piston of a hydraulic press sent from South America to the workshop of Taylor Made Gates on Newton Road, a business owned by Lang.

Both men denied the charge, as did a third defendant Daryl Wilson, 33, a security door fitter from Queensway, Torquay.

The jury took three hours to find Lang and Ferguson guilty of conspiring together to fraudulently evade the prohibition of importation of a Class A drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and in contravention of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.

Wilson was acquitted of the same charge.

The five-day trial was told how the drugs were discovered hidden in a metal press by officials at Frankfurt Airport in Germany.

They were removed at Heathrow Airport but the press was reassembled and taken to its destination address at Taylor Made Gates.

Officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency then mounted a surveillance operation to see who would pick up the press.

It lay unwrapped on a pallet for several days in a deliberate attempt to flush out any interest from police.

SOCA planted a listening bug and on the morning of January 16 officers heard Lang, Ferguson and another man, Ricardo Gomez, opening the package and dismantling the press.

At 11.10am local police and SOCA officers raided the workshop and arrested the three men.

The working press used to conceal the drugs bored the fake company name of Torbol, a combination of Torquay and Bolivia.

The company did not exist but a cargo firm paid to bring it through Heathrow had been given a glossy company brochure to make it seem genuine.

It was claimed Ferguson had arranged for Gomez, known as 'the mechanic', to fly to the UK a few days before to dismantle the press and extract the drugs.

Gomez admitted his part in the plot and did not stand trial.

Ferguson said he thought the press would contain cannabis.

He claimed he was asked by a businessman from his native Liverpool to take out the cannabis and drive it up to Liverpool.

Lang, who refused to give evidence, told police he had been asked by an unnamed man to take delivery of a press but had no idea it contained drugs.

Wilson denied any knowledge of the press or drug smuggling.

The prosecution said Wilson knew both men and was the 'go-between' allowing Lang and Ferguson to stay in contact by passing messages between them.

But the jury did not agree and he walked free from court.

Police said the gang wanted to extract the drugs for onward sale in the UK.

Ferguson, Lang and Gomez are due to be sentenced today.

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Nasser Muhammad Jacobs, 37, of East Orange, was arrested by state police at Wyoming

Nasser Muhammad Jacobs, 37, of East Orange, was arrested by state police at Wyoming when he attempted to hide heroin inside a vehicle upon returning from New Jersey in April. Jacobs became a fugitive when he skipped an October Luzerne County Court hearing on drug related charges.Wilkes-Barre police captured Jacobs on Wednesday night when he exited the Pennsylvania Turnpike with 150 heroin packets he obtained in Newark, N.J., intending to sell them in the Wyoming Valley, according to arrest records. Jacobs was charged with a single count of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance on the latest arrests. He was arraigned by District Judge Fred Pierantoni in Pittston and jailed at the county prison for lack of $35,000 bail. According to the criminal complaint: Police received information that Jacobs, a fugitive wanted by the Luzerne County Sheriff’s Department, was returning to the Wyoming Valley driving a specific vehicle on the turnpike. Police spotted Jacobs driving the vehicle that was stopped on state Route 115 at about 10:15 p.m.
A female passenger, whose name was not released, turned over 150 heroin packets to police. Police said Jacobs admitted to obtaining the heroin in Newark for resale in Wilkes-Barre, and had the woman hide the packets in her clothing. Police said Jacobs’ arrest resulted in a search of a hotel room in Pittston Township where heroin packets and a .44-caliber Magnum handgun were seized. A preliminary hearing is scheduled on March 24 before District Judge Michael Dotzel in Wilkes-Barre Township. Jacobs could face additional charges, police said.State police arrested Jacobs on April 25 during a traffic stop at Wilkes-Barre Boulevard and Scott Street, Wilkes-Barre He was a passenger in a vehicle in which troopers found heroin packets hidden inside the door, according to arrest records.
State police said Jacobs had returned to Wilkes-Barre from Newark with the heroin prior to the vehicle being stopped for a faulty brake light. A Luzerne County judge issued an arrest warrant for Jacobs when he failed to appear at an Oct. 1 court hearing on charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, according to court records.

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