A MAN accused of smuggling drugs into Failsworth has gone on trial.

Shan Gao has been charged with dealing with goods of fraudulent intent, which prosecutor Antony Longworth told the jury meant in ‘simple terms’ that Shan was ‘involved in an operation to smuggle cannabis into the country’.

Shan has also been charged with possessing cannabis with intent to supply to another.

The 54-year-old, of Moss Lane East, Manchester, has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

The trial began at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court yesterday with Mr Longworth outlining the agreed facts of the case.

The court heard that on July 15, an airfreight consignment arrived at Heathrow Airport wrapped in blue plastic.

It had been sent by a ‘fictitious company’ that was purported to be delivering mechanical machinery from Richmond in Canada to an address in Manchester.

Officers at the airport became suspicious and opened the consignment which contained three pallet-sized crates in blue plastic.

Inside the crates were eight boxes that contained plastic packages filled with 500 grams of cannabis.

Fragranced tumble dryer sheets, thought to be used to disguise the smell, were at the top and bottom of each box.

The total weight of the discovered cannabis was 300kg.

The consignment was seized that day.

Then on July 21, another consignment was delivered to Heathrow from a firm said to be based in Richmond Canada and the receiver was listed as an address in Glasgow, which was then changed to Unit 42, Victory Park, Mill Street, Failsworth.

This time the package claimed to contain folding machinery.

There were two pallets within the consignment that were again wrapped in blue plastic.

The consignment in fact contained boxes of cannabis again with tumble dryer sheets.

The cannabis, which weighed in at 155kg, was removed from the boxes and the consignment was restored to its original appearance and sent to the Failsworth unit.

On July 23, at around 1pm, the package was delivered, and CCTV footage shows Shan Gao waiting for the package in a black Volkswagen Passat.

In the footage Shan helps the delivery driver remove the crates from the truck and appears to take a photo of the delivery with his phone.

He then opens one crate and removes the blue plastic cover before leaving.

At just after 5pm that day police cut through the Failsworth container’s padlocks and found a cutter and scales with traces of cannabis on them and Shan’s fingerprints.

The container also had a strong smell of cannabis.

Police officers then went to a car park next to a block of flats named Lakeside Rise in Blackley, Manchester where they found Shan next to a black Volkswagen Passat and arrested him.

Officers searched Shan and found a mobile phone, keys to the car, and a further set of keys including house keys.

The keys were later found to fit the padlocks at Unit 42 and the door to the flat in the Lakeside complex.

They also found a plastic bag on the car’s spare wheel which contained three bags of cannabis.

Police searched the flat and found no sign it was being lived in other than three toothbrushes in the bathroom including one with Shan’s DNA on it.

Officers also found packages of cannabis bush in vacuum packs, black plastic bags, and a Chanel bag.

The cannabis bush was found above the stairs, in storage areas, and in pillowcases.

More sets of scales, a glass bong, and a blender containing cannabis were also discovered.

Around 33kg of cannabis bush was found in the flat in total.

The prosecution said the flat was being used as a ‘distribution centre’ while the Failsworth unit was the ‘destination address’ used to store the cannabis.

Mr Longworth said: “More than 30kg is far too much for a person to have in their possession for any other reason than to distribute.”

He added that the unit had been rented by a Chinese male since the end of 2019 who paid the rent in Scottish cash.

Mr Longworth said Shan took out the tenancy at the flat, which is owned by a Chinese couple who he negotiated with on WeChat.

In a statement to police read out to the court, Shan denied the allegations and said he did not know the parcel contained cannabis and that if he did know he would not have agreed.

Shan added that he had ‘nothing to do with’ the packages at the flat, that he did not live in the flat, and that his phone was not password protected.

Mr Longworth said it was ‘nonsense’ that the second consignment which contained 155kg of cannabis would be received by someone who had ‘no knowledge of what was going on’.

The prosecutor also said it was ‘nonsense’ to suggest someone with keys to a flat that contained his toothbrush did not know there was cannabis inside.

He added: “It was a drug dealers flat” and said Shan had another property in Moss Side and that the flat was used as part of a ‘drug dealing operation’.

The trial will continue this week.