A JURY trying five men accused of running a multi-million pound Bolton drugs ring, have been viewing covert surveillance video recordings of alleged meetings at their "headquarters" at a diner on the outskirts of the town centre.

They watched extracts taken from a hidden camera mounted about 75 yards away from Debbie's Diner, and manned by detectives whom it is claimed videoed and logged the gang's comings and goings on a daily basis.

DC Paul Todd of the Greater Manchester Police Drugs Squad dealt with events on April 22, 1999, when it is alleged two of the gang had a lunchtime meeting with a third man, Brian Pero, the day before Pero was arrested in Manchester with a kilo of high purity cocaine for the organisation in his car.

He said Pero arrived at the diner at 12.45pm, and following the meeting with Billy Webb and John Barber left at 1.31pm.

Questioned by Campbell Tait, defending Barber, DC Todd agreed that it was very difficult to identify faces and details from the film of the alleged meeting inside the cafe, shot through a window at which the camera zoom was pointed.

In the dock at Liverpool Crown Court are John Barber, aged 35, of Breightmet; Alan Bentley, aged 34, of Astley Bridge; Lee Bonney, aged 34, of Great Lever; Carl Entwistle, aged 21, of Brownlow Fold, and Raymond Hargreaves, aged 41, of Callands, Warrington.

They deny conspiring together and with 25-year-old Brian Roper and 48-year-old Martin Wright, both of Deane, to supply heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine between August 1998 and November 1999,

Drugs brought in from Liverpool were distinctively packaged before being left by those higher up the chain in discreet public places, such as Moss Bank Park, for others to pick up and sell on, claims Mr Charles Garside, QC, prosecuting.

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