SMUGGLERS 'USED SKODA ON DRUGS'

The Skoda has been an object of ridicule for years but when a group of
drug smugglers chose to hide their illicit haul in one they discovered
that the joke was on them, a court heard yesterday.

The gang allegedly hired a Skoda to drive a fortune in drugs from the
Czech Republic to Britain by hiding packets of heroin in the car's
fuel tank.

But by the journey's end the UKP 500,000 worth of drugs were soaked in
diesel and "unsaleable", David Green QC, prosecuting, told Southwark
crown court in London.

The other gang members then spent days trying to decontaminate their
haul by washing it in a potent alcoholic brew called raki in the
bathroom of a safe house, he added. Fumes from the fuel were so strong
that the callers were greeted from an upstairs window to "avert" suspicion.

Mr Green said that the choice of hiding place had not only ruined the
heroin, but also made the nearly new Skoda break down repeatedly. It
was eventually towed to a council car pound and had to be returned to
the Czech hire company by lorry.

As a result, the two alleged couriers who had travelled in it had to
catch a coach back to the Czech Republic.

Undeterred by their misfortune, the gang allegedly rented another
Skoda just days later, resorting to the fuel tank method once more.
When customs men halted the vehicle at Dover, they recovered more than
18kg (40lbs) of heroin, most of it already ruined.

Mr Green said that the 8kg of heroin retrieved during a raid on the
gang's house, together with that recovered from the second smuggling
run, had a total street value of UKP 1.65m.

Erdinc Uchkach, 34, of Stoke Newington, north London; his alleged
"lieutenant", Levant Comert, 36, of Highbury, north London, and the
alleged couriers, Miroslav Pelzer, 41, and Jana Sauerova, 26, both
from Ceske Budejovice, deny one count of smuggling heroin, while the
alleged couriers, plead not guilty to a second similar charge.

The trial continues.