Motorcyclist denies huge cocaine hand-over in Horsford woods

Prosecutors claim Christoffel Van Rossum, 47, handed over drugs at a secret rendezvous in woodlands as part of an exchange for the cash.

He was arrested in March 2020 after two meetings near Horsford observed by a team of covert police officers monitoring the movements of the man he met.   

Van Rossum is on trial at Norwich Crown Court having denied being involved in a conspiracy to supply class A drugs. 

Mark Eldridge, prosecuting, said when arrested he had been in possession of an encrypted mobile phone that showed he had visited Canvey Island in Essex before travelling to Norfolk on his Kawasaki. 

He accused the biker of having acted as a courier as part of a “wider conspiracy”.

The court was told investigations had uncovered deposits totalling £23,000 into Van Rossum’s bank account with sums paid in following trips to other areas of the country including Liverpool, Birmingham and Stoke.

After his arrest he denied having ferried drugs and told police he had been collecting the money for “a man in Spain”.

Giving evidence he told the jury that after seeing the amount of cash he “realised I had been dropped right in it”.

But Mr Eldridge said: “He is not the innocent dupe he likes to pretend. He knew full well what he was doing and that was the supply of cocaine.”

Christoffel Van Rossum is on trial at Norwich Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

Two co-defendants, including the man he met in the woods, have separately admitted drug supply offences.   

Van Rossum, from Witham, Essex, has previously pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property.

Ioana Nedelcu, defending, said he admitted knowing the cash he was collecting was linked to crime but that it had not been a drugs hand-over.

“There is simply no evidence that drugs were passed in the first meeting, the second meeting or at all,” she said.

The trial continues.