A CO Down man facing drugs charges is a “significant mover in an organised crime gang and high tier drug dealer,” a court heard yesterday.
Prosecuting counsel Robin Steer further claimed that 43-year-old Rory Trainor could be linked to an encrypted mobile phone which was found to contain a “huge number of conversations about transporting cash and drugs.”
Trainor, from the Dunbrae Road in Newry, appeared at the city's magistrates court, sitting in Lisburn, via videolink from police custody where he was charged when eight offences.
The 43-year-old faces six drugs charges in relation to alleged conspiracies to import and supply class A cocaine and class B cannabis and single charges accusing him of conspiring to transfer criminal property and is entering an arrangement to acquire criminal property, all alleged to have been committed on dates between March 25 and June 15 this year.
Objecting to Trainor being freed on bail due to the risk of further offences and absconding, Mr Steer described how Trainor could allegedly be linked to the encrypted handset, which police do not have but they have the data from it. The lawyer claimed that he used two usernames of “Genghis Khan and Barnbrack.”
He told the court that in conversations with another user about renting a property, the person using the hacked phone advises to “tell the landlord that you are a friend of Rory T” which is followed up by another message saying the T stands for “Trainor.”
When the other user says they’re going to use a fake name, Trainor allegedly advises “don’t give my name if you are giving a fake ID.”
Images taken from the encrypted phone were said to show a weights ' bench and cycling machine and the court heard that when officers searched Trainor’s home “police took comparable images” showing the same items.
“He told another user that his first name was Rory so we say that there’s strong evidence linking him to the data,” Mr Steer contended, revealing that within the data were messages about “transportation being sent from the Netherlands or crates being sent out to Spain.”
Defence counsel Michael Chambers submitted that the whole prosecution case “rests on linking him” to being the user of the phone but that there were “genuine and real triable issues” in the evidence.
“You will know from the national media that this is a very important case reputedly to the NCA and police,” he told District Judge Nigel Broderick, adding that there was “little surprise” in the agencies “putting forward that they have a very good case.”
He revealed that a defendant in a similar case, charged with having £250,000 of criminal cash and 2.5 kilos of herbal cannabis, was granted High Court bail, with a £40,000 cash surety, on Friday with the prosecution attributing a similar role to him.
Defence counsel argued that Trainor could lodge a similar cash surety adding that with all cases, and particularly complex cases such as this, facing significant delays, that Trainor should be granted bail.
The district judge however refused the request and Trainor was remanded into custody and his case adjourned to August 19.