Alleged drugs gang member 'duped into smuggling hand grenades', court hears

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A man has told a jury he was duped into carrying two hand grenades away from an alleged drug gang leader's flat.

Graham Wellings, 56, said he thought he had been handed cannabis after being summoned to the apartment in Stretford which was said to be the hub of a cocaine and heroin supply operation.

But a court heard how he was being watched by undercover cops as he cycled away - and was later found to be carrying two hand grenades in his rucksack.

The alleged drama happened on January 29 last year after police had already found a gun and two hand-grenades in a storage cupboard of another apartment at Milton Close, a block of flats in Gorse Hill, Stretford.

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The army bomb disposal squad was called and some 400 residents had to be evacuated.

With police descending on the area, alleged gang leader Nathan Morgan, 37, was becoming 'increasingly concerned and paranoid' and used an alleged drug dealing associate, Gary Davies, to summon Mr Wellings to collect two other grenades, according to the prosecution.

They said Morgan had called Mr Wellings to his flat to 'dispose of criminal items'.

On the third day of his trial, Mr Wellings told a jury at Minshull Street Crown Court, sitting at Stockport magistrates' court, that he agreed to help Morgan so he could wipe out a £400 drugs debt he owed to Mr Davies.

Graham Wellings, who admitted a heroin and cocaine habit was spiralling out of control at the time, told the jury: "I had been paid that day. I had some money to give Gary Davies.

"I was at home and he's phoned me. He's called me a few times. In the end I answered and he said 'are you coming around?