Pilot 'brought stolen Russian missile to UK on a mission for the secret service'

A pilot accused of smuggling £22mworth of cocaine into an airport was once asked by the British secret services to charter a plane to collect a captured Russian missile, a court heard yesterday.

Christopher Barrett-Jolley, 55, of Wellington, Somerset, told Basildon Crown Court he was paid $40,000 (£26,000) for the job by a man he called "Mr MI6". He said he had been involved in a lot of sensitive charter flights for governments across the world.

Mr Barrett-Jolley and others were arrested on board a Boeing 707 plane that landed at Southend Airport, Essex, in October, 2001. It is alleged six suitcases packed with cocaine were dropped from the aircraft as it taxied along the runway.

Mr Barrett-Jolley, his brother-in-law Peter Carine, 50, of Hensall, North Yorkshire, [name temporarily removed], 41, of Knutsford, Cheshire, and Martin Lake, 61, of Storrington, West Sussex, all deny smuggling more than 270kg of cocaine into the UK.

Details of the missile mission emerged when Mr Barrett-Jolley appeared in court to answer the smuggling charges. He said he was introduced to the secret services by Customs and Excise at Coventry Airport in 1993 at a time when his company was chartering a plane from Ostend to Cairo.

He said: "The gentleman, who I called Mr MI6, said he knew we had an aircraft on its way to Cairo and he wanted us to pick something up in Yerevan, a former Russian republic, now Armenia. We collected a shoulder-launched guided missile and launcher.

"It was a stolen Russian missile that was brought back to England for analysis."

The plane that he flew to Cairo, which had no documentation on board, landed on a disused runway amid tight security, the court heard. Mr Carine and Mr Lake were also on board, the court heard.

Mr Barrett-Jolley told the jury he had chartered planes for governments including Canada, Australia, Holland and Senegal. He had also worked for an arm of the CIA called Air America. He said: "All the charters are what I would call low-profile government charters." When asked by his barrister Martin Heslop QC what this meant, he replied: "They didn't want any publicity."

During the Gulf War, he operated eight flights out of Oman evacuating embassy and government staff. The court was told Mr Barrett-Jolley had contracts to supply aircraft and operated charter flights in various countries.

The trial has been adjourned until tomorrow.