Jury told caterers used catering trolley to import cocaine

A court has been told that an airline catering food trolley was used to smuggle cocaine from a plain at Sydney International Airport. The4 packages were planted in a toilet by a passenger during a flight from Los Angeles, according to a Crown Prosecutor.

The court was told that Matthew Hay, 44, was helping to restock the United Airlines 747 when a colleague took two packages from the toilet and placed them in the trolley.  It is alleged that the colleague wheeled the trolley onto a catering truck and sent an SMS saying “Two small ones?”

Minutes later, the pair were arrested on the tarmac.  Nearly 1 kilograms white powder, including 250 grams of pure cocaine, was discovered by ikn the vehicle by police.

Hay is on trial alongside 56 year old Wayne Williams at the Sydney District Court.

Both have pleaded not guilty to conspiring with others to import a marketable quantity of cocaine into Sydney between October 2008 and September 2009.

The prosecution said that the jury would hear evidence throughout the trial of telephone intercepts in which code words were used. It is alleged that Mr Williams sent a text to other men leading up to the importation, which said “No barbecue this weekend” and “stormy weather”.  The messages implied that the importation didn’t always run smoothly.