Court told of drug `execution'

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Three drug dealers were gunned down in a country lane by two rivals who doubled-crossed them following a dispute over smuggled cannabis, a court heard yesterday. The three men were executed with shotguns as they waited in a Range Rover on a remote farm in Essex.

They had been lured there by the promise of a major cocaine deal, a jury at the Old Bailey court was told. But as Patrick Tate, 37, Anthony Tucker, 38 and Craig Rolfe, 26, all from Essex, sat inside the vehicle on the snowy night in December, 1995, they were shot in the head.

The prosecution alleges that the killers were Michael Steele, 55, from Clacton on Sea, Essex, and his right-hand man, Jack Whomes, 36, from Brockford, Suffolk, both of whom deny the charges. The case continues today.