DRUGS cops rammed a car in a dramatic swoop, code-named Operation Ricochet, and discovered the driver with a bag of heroin worth £1,000, a jury heard.

Oxford Crown Court was told Mohammed Khan was arrested by police after he was found with the heroin during a trip back from London.

Khan, 27, and his passenger, Shaid Qayyum, 20, were taken to Cowley Police Station following their arrest during the swoop in January last year.

Both deny possessing heroin with intent to supply and possessing heroin.

Wayne Cranston-Morris, prosecuting, told the court how Khan, of Parsons Place, Oxford, and Qayyum, of Magdalen Road, east Oxford, were driving along a slip road leading on to the A40 from the M40 at Wheatley at about 12.30am.

Police had been waiting in an unmarked van in a lay-by and a police Range Rover collided with the car to bring it to a halt and the officers jumped out of the van.

Giving evidence, Pc Ian Hewitson said he and his colleagues smashed the window of the car with a crow-bar and reached in to get Khan out.

"With assistance of a colleague Mr Khan was pulled to the floor and I shouted at him 'Get your arms out and stop struggling'," Pc Hewitson said.

"He brought them out from under him and I handcuffed him. Then we lifted him to the floor."In the broken glass of the car window, where Khan had been lying, police found a watch and a package containing heroin, Mr Cranston-Morris said.

The case continues.

When interviewed by police tThe pair, both former heroin users, denied knowledge of the package and the drug, although Qayyum, who said he went along with Khan for the ride but fell asleep, later changed his story.

Mr Cranston-Morris said. In a third interview he told officers Khan had asked him to hold a package, which Khan didn't want to hold without wearing gloves. Qayyum claimed he didn't know it contained heroin but admitted he thought it was suspicious. Det Con John Walsh told the court he had strip searched Khan, which was normal procedure. He denied his colleague DC George Taylor had traded insults with the defendant during the strip search.

The case continues. Fumes led to death COTTAGE blaze victim Natalie Rhee died from inhaling toxic fumes, a murder trial jury has been told.

Her husband Jong Rhee, 34, allegedly torched the cottage in Llanrwst in the Conwy Valley, North Wales, last April, so he could claim £250,000 life insurance to cover gambling debts.

The Korean jumped clear of the blaze on April 15, but Natalie, 25, of Field Garden, Steventon, died. He denies murder.

Dr Meurig Hughes, the pathologist who carried out the postmortem examination on Natalie, three days after her death, told Chester Crown Court yesterday that the body had been badly burnt in the blaze.Dr Hughes said identification could only be confirmed with the help of dental records because the body had been severely charred. The pathologist told the jury that Mrs Rhee's head had suffered no fractures and there had been no trauma or abnormalities to the brain.

The lungs were intensely congested because of the smoke but otherwise both they and the heart were normal.Dr Hughes also ruled out the possibility that the victim was pregnant at the time of her death, despite the claim made by the defendant to police.

Concluding his evidence, the pathologist added that Natalie fell unconscious before she died from carbon monoxide poisoning. There was no evidence that she lost consciousness through any other act.

However, he added that it was impossible to tell if she had suffered from any external injuries because her body had been so badly damaged by the fire.

Natalie is the daughter of RAF Air Commodore Lloyd Doble and wife Georgina. The court heard earlier that Mr Rhee, of Crystal Palace, South London, had increased the insurance cover on his wife's life by £150,000 weeks before her death. The trial continues.

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