Smugglers hid cocaine inside golf clubs

Facing jail: Tony Bayne
Central News
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Two drug smugglers were facing jail today after posing as golfers to flood the UK with millions of pounds of cocaine hidden in the shafts of their clubs.

Tony Bayne, 52, and Taher Najmzadeh, 53, were recruited to fly overseas with golf bags as part of their luggage.

The pair received cash as well as European and Caribbean holidays in return for smuggling the drugs between July 2012 and May 2014.

Police seized more than £3 million worth of cocaine, Snaresbrook crown court was told.

The couriers travelled with their golf equipment and took photographs of themselves holding their clubs as part of the ruse. Ahead of sentencing today, Judge Neil Sanders warned: “They are obviously facing substantial custodial sentences.” Prosecutor Catherine Pattison had told jurors: “The method deployed to use golf bags was rather ingenious because to an unsuspecting eye at customs or border control somebody ferrying a golf bag in or out would not cause any suspicion.” She said the couriers “were not remotely interested in playing a round of golf”.

Customs officers seized just under 17kg of cocaine with a street value of £3.3 million hidden in club shafts.

Bayne, of Southwark, and Najmzadeh, of Holloway, were recruited to travel to Curacao, an island in the Dutch Caribbean, as well as to European cities including Salzburg, Paris, Lille and Brussels.

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