Suspected British drug kingpin on trial in Paris

British national Robert Dawes goes on trial in Paris on Monday along with two other Britons and three Italians, accused of operating a huge drug-running ring that came to light when 1.3 tonnes of cocaine were discovered in suitcases at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport.

Bags of cocaine seized in Lima in 2009 AFP/ Ernesto BENAVIDES

Dawes, 46, was arrested in an Interpol operation at his luxury villa in the south of Spain in November 2015.

A year earlier Spain's Guardia Civil tapped a phone conversation in which he allegedly claimed the huge cocaine haul - worth an estimated 50 million euros - belonged to him, a charge he now denies.

In the dock of the special court with him are fellow Britons Nathan Wheat and Kane Price and Italians Marco Panetta, Vincenzo Aprea and Carmine Russo.

Together they are suspected of smuggling large quantities of drugs into Europe.

France's drugs squad started the investigation in September 2013, when they opened 30 suitcases from an Air France Caracas-Paris flight which apparently did not belong to any of the passengers.

There were 1,300 kilos of cocaine inside.

Suspects picked up at German border and in Paris suburbs

The police then started a surveillance and infiltration operation and picked up the five suspects a week later.

Panetta was caught at the border with Germany driving a van reportedly containing 300 bricks of cocaine.

Wheat and Price were picked up while shopping on Paris's Champs Elysées.

Aprea and Russo, who are accused of being leading members of a family of Naples's Camorra gangsters, were arrested at a residence in the Paris suburbs.

Five of the accused face charges of organised crime-linked drug-smuggling and face up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to 7.5 million euros.