Language expert asked to crack cocaine case

Published on Tuesday 22 January 2008 16:45

AN African language expert was asked to help police crack a half-million-pound cocaine smuggling case by listening to "joyful singing", a trial has heard.

Six kilos of the drug, of very high purity, was found in packing crates containing pottery from Peru which had been flown into Edinburgh Airport.

Detectives from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency then planted a bug in one of the crates and waited for them to be collected.

Godson Echebima of London-based IOL Language Service told the High Court in Edinburgh that he identified the language on recordings of the conversation picked up by the eavesdropping device as Igbo, spoken in Eastern Nigeria.

There were two Igbo voices on the recording, he said. Snatches of almost inaudible conversation could be heard against a background of a vehicle starting up and what seemed to be a telephone call.

A transcript shown to the jury described part of the recording as "brief, joyful singing" and translated the words as "He who's got the drug is going ..."

Earlier the trial heard how a white Toyota van was stopped as it headed south on the M74.

On trial is Edmond Okoli, 43, of Tyrrell Road, London, who denies smuggling cocaine into Scotland in November 2005 and being concerned in the supply of the drug.

The trial continues.