THREE Liverpool men are set to be sentenced for their parts in a cocaine plot run by a North Wales gangster.
David Edward Clarke, 48, Kenneth Cain, 34, and Neil Sutemire, 37, are all set to hear their fates at the conclusion of a trial of two men also accused of being in their drugs gang.
Caernarfon crown court this week heard the plot was headed by notorious North Wales thug John Gizzi, 39, of Abergele, who, along with the three Liverpudlians and four others, has already pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell cocaine bought in Merseyside on his local streets.
Clark, of Walton Village, Walton; Cain, of Cathedral Walk, in the city centre; and Sutemire, who is from Liverpool but could not give the court a fixed address, were all implicated in Gizzi’s plan when undercover police in North Wales stopped a car and found £162,000 of drugs and later discovered nearly £70,000 in cash.
Gizzi, who left prison in March 2009 after being jailed five years ago for assault and cigarette smuggling, was one of 10 men arrested and charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine between August 6, 2009, and April 22 last year.
Telephone traffic linked the 10 men to the conspiracy, the court heard.
Two men – Karl Evans, 29, of Llys Nant, and John Etheridge, 30, of Llys Arthur, both in Towyn – have denied conspiracy and their trial began this week.
John Philpotts, prosecuting, told the jury the men were arrested after an extensive covert operation by North Wales police against a drugs gang.
He said: “This was headed by a man called John Gizzi, who has pleaded guilty for his part in the conspiracy.
“During the period in question, the gang acquired cocaine from Liverpool for onward supply in Conwy and Denbighshire.”
Mr Philpotts said police kept watch on the gang over a nine-month period.
During that time, they saw Gizzi meeting various other members of the gang in the car parks of pubs and restaurants in the Abergele area.
There were also meetings in narrow country lanes.
Last December, officers watched Gizzi emerge from the yard of Abergele Building Supplies, a business owned by his father, and drive off in a pick-up truck.
He was followed by a Vauxhall Vectra car driven by Sutemire.
The Vectra was later spotted parked in a narrow country lane near Gizzi’s home in St George.
Mr Philpotts said: “The Vectra was stopped by police and a plastic bag containing £29,000 cash was recovered.”
The “final piece in the jigsaw” was found in April when three men were seen at Clarke’s Walton home.
The court heard one of the men who has already pleaded came out of the house with a large parcel and was later found by police with a 1kg bar of cocaine.
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