Drugs trial collapses over "supergrass" evidence

LONDON (Reuters) - A multi-million pound trial involving a suspected gang of high-level drug dealers collapsed on Monday over the evidence of a "supergrass".

Seven men were formally cleared at the Old Bailey of conspiracy to supply class A drugs after a decision by prosecutors to offer no evidence.

The case was to be based on the evidence of Colombian informant Juan Evangelista Narvaez Lopez, who had admitted to large-scale cocaine dealing over a seven-year period and was the key prosecution witness.

The cleared men were Alexander Duarte, 36, Paul Collins, 39, Terence Wilmot, 34, William Cuervo, 42, Dean White, 41, Jarnail Singh, 29, and Ivan Alvarado Chica, 28, all from London or Kent.

The decision to offer no evidence came after jurors in an earlier trial, also based on testimony by Lopez, cleared three other suspected dealers after rejecting the informant's evidence.

That jury, which heard details of multi-million pound deals and a network stretching from Britain to Spain, Jamaica and Colombia, acquitted Alan Richardson, 44, Martin Schofield, 47, and Darren Taylor, 37.

One defendant, Nicholas Johnson, 37, admitted a single count of conspiracy to supply class A drugs while jurors were unable to reach a verdict on Ford Sexton, 51.

The three-year police operation has resulted in a total of 11 acquittals. But detectives said they still believed the operation, codenamed Alpington, had been successful, having secured 25 convictions.

They had also seized 230kg of cocaine, 50kg of heroin and 71kg of amphetamines -- with a street value totalling several million pounds.