LARNACA Criminal Court found two men guilty yesterday of conspiracy to commit a felony by importing large quantities of drugs and supplying narcotics. 

Briton Gareth Norster, 30, was sentenced to 11 years and Stefanos Mendonis, 34, to three and a half years imprisonment.

Both men, from Larnaca, were involved in a drug smuggling case, along with two others, last September in Aradippou whereby six and a half kilos of cannabis, half a kilo of cannabis resin and some ecstasy pills were found stored in three oxygen cylinders.

The case unfolded when drugs squad YKAN received a tip off that some of the people they had under surveillance were moving oxygen cylinders from a house. Finding this suspicious they followed up on it to find several small bags used to store drugs. 

Further information led them to a warehouse owned by one of the men, and to the oxygen cylinders. They also found two weighing scales, gloves and other paraphernalia used to  process drugs. At the time YKAN chief Gavriel Gavriel said that the tip-off had come the week before, when someone was seen delivering a suitcase via motorcycle to a second person in an open area in Aradippou.

YKAN interrupted them, seizing the suitcase. One of the suspects was found with two grammes of cannabis on him. In the meantime another two of the suspects were approaching in a car, saw what was happening and tried to escape. While doing so they injured an YKAN officer in the leg and also damaged a patrol car.

Norster and Mendonis were arrested during the chase in Aradippou, while another suspect involved – Carolina Gonzales Gordon, 25, from Spain – was arrested later that day. The fourth suspect Zaharias Kallis, 34, was arrested the following day. 

YKAN officers were led to Gordon from information they found in a suitcase stored at Norster’s sister’s house.

Gordon and Kallis were sentenced to six and seven years in jail respectively last November. Gordon admitted that not only had she brought the drugs from Holland but she had carried drugs on numerous occasions.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, the arrival of Gordon in Cyprus along with the transport of the drugs was down to Mendonis and Norster who were friends and had previously worked together on bringing in drugs.

The judges remarked that it was one of the most well-organised operations and novel ways of hiding drugs the courts had come across. They also noted that Norster played a leading role and that was why he received a longer sentence.

Cyprus Mail