An Oxfordshire based criminal gang is said to have handled more than 50 kilos of cocaine, a court heard.

Outlining the case for the Crown on Tuesday morning, prosecutor Michael Roques told jurors that gang chief Richard Gray - said to have called himself ‘CheetahSoda’ on a heavily-encrypted criminal phone network - arranged for the drugs to be picked up from Preston or Bury, near Manchester, by couriers Jamie Shepherd-Smith and William White and stored at his then girlfriend’s house.

The two delivery men were said to have made between 15 and 20 trips to the north of England, collecting ‘at least’ two kilos of cocaine each time.

“In order to facilitate him to be able to move kilos of drugs [Richard Gray] purchased a vehicle that had a built-in hide,” Mr Roques said.

“Drugs could be safely stored, the lid would close and if his vehicle was searched nobody would be any the wiser.”

Richard Gray rented a ‘remote’ farm, where police recovered cutting agents allegedly used to ‘bulk’ up the cocaine and where Gray and his brother Patrick spent ‘a lot of time together’.

Mr Roques told the jury that Richard Gray, said by prosecutors to have led the gang, had a specialist ‘Encrochat’ phone - a heavily-encrypted handset designed to stop police hacking into conversations between those involved in crime. His Encrochat username was ‘CheetahSoda’, the court heard.

The Gray’s customers allegedly included Mohamed Ali. The prosecutor said of the Milton Keynes man: “He would purchase kilos or part-kilo quantities from Richard Gray, paying him thousands of pounds for the privilege.”

Mr Roques said that Richard Gray, 32, couriers William White, 35, and Jamie Shepherd-Smith, 33, and gang’s customer Lewis Court, 36, had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Patrick Gray, 44, of Radford Close, Oxford, and Mohamed Ali, 50, of Beanhill, Milton Keynes, deny conspiracy to supply the class A drug between September 1, 2020, and May 26, 2021.

The prosecutor concluded his opening of the case against Patrick Gray and Ali on Tuesday: "In a nutshell that is the prosecution's case. Multiple kilos of cocaine being sourced by Richard Gray, assisted by his brother Patrick, Jamie Shepherd-Smith and William White going to collect the drugs from the suppliers north of Manchester, delivering them back to Richard Gray to store them at his then girlfriend's address.

"The police estimate that the organised criminal group over the period of counts one and two [2020-2021] supplied not less than 50 kilos of cocaine."

The trial, which is expected to last up to three weeks, continues.