Drugs accused ran through field when police stopped car

Appearing at Coleraine Magistrates’ Court, sitting in Ballymena, 38-year-old Chris Djorjani was charged with two offences arising from the seizure on Friday – possessing cocaine and having the class A drug with intent to supply.

While Djorjani, a personal trainer from the Ballymena Road in Cullybackey, confirmed that he understood the offences, a PSNI officer said she believed she could connect him to the charges and that police were objecting to bail due to fears that he would abscond or commit further offences to recoup the “significant loss”.

She outlined that at around 4.30 on Friday afternoon, “police had occasion” to stop a blue Skoda Octavia on the Carnlough Road in Ballymena.

Although owned by the defendant, Djorjani was in the passenger seat but when he was asked to stand to one side, he ran off through a field.

On his way he “dropped a package” which he immediately picked up. Taking to his heels again, Djorjani ran through the yard of a nearby farm, jumping over a stone boundary wall into a field where he was eventually arrested.

The officer told the court that as officers at the scene noticed some stones in the wall appeared to have been disturbed, a drugs dog was brought into the field and the cocaine package was discovered.

Describing how ‘250 1/4 kilo’ was written on the wrapping, the officer said it had “clearly been pressed” into a block, a technique which “takes an amount of expertise and équipment to do,” adding that police estimate the seizure is worth around £10,000.

“We have assessed that he is part of a drugs organised crime gang and has links to the South East Antrim UDA,” claimed the officer, who suggested that with a clear record, Djorjani was a “perfect candidate for supplying”.

Defence counsel Craig Patton conceded that Djorjani “did himself no favours” by running off but argued that despite police continually raising concerns about an alleged offender recouping losses by reoffending in drugs cases, “I have not seen any such cases in these courts”.

As regards his alleged links to organised crime and the South East Antrim UDA, the lawyer suggested that “anyone of any standing in that organisation would have a record and has been brought to court” whereas Djorjani has no such record.

Although Mr Patton submitted that police concerns could be addressed through bail conditions and a £1,500 cash surety from Djorjani’s partner, District Judge Peter King disagreed and refused to release him .

The case was adjourned to December 9.