A MAN allegedly involved in a £1.3m drugs conspiracy was secretly recorded talking about heroin, a jury was told.

Shorne Ross, 42, is on trial at Oxford Crown Court and denies being part of a conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine, both Class-A drugs.

Michael Roques, prosecuting, said Ross was one of five men arrested on March 10 as part of Thames Valley Police’s Operation Strix.

He said the men were taken into custody after a “bug” was secretly planted in the cab of a lorry driven by the group’s leader, Martin Gray, who has admitted being part of the conspiracy.

Mr Roques said Ross, of Mumford Drive, Rothersthope, Northampton, was arrested after a van carrying 13kg of cocaine and 2kg of heroin was stopped on the M40 near High Wycombe.

Yesterday the jury was played covert recordings where the defendant can be heard talking about “a box of bobby”.

Mr Roques told the jury these were terms used by drug dealers to disguise what they really meant - with a “box” meaning a kilogram and “bobby” or “Bobby Brown” meaning heroin.

Gray, of Randolph Avenue, Woodstock, can also be heard talking to what the prosecution describe as the group’s other “director”, 35-year-old Yemi Aiyegbusi, of Walton Street, Oxford.

The trial continues.

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