They must have known what they were involved in

Tim Bradbury, prosecuting

Tim Bradbury, prosecuting, said: "These defendants were basically unwrapping them, unloading them, placing them in cardboard boxes and then putting the cardboard boxes into the Transit vans."

Mr Bradbury said that when customs officers raided the building, the defendants were still in the process of stripping down the mattresses and removing the cigarettes.

The court heard how, when interviewed, both men had denied they knew in advance that they would be asked to handle smuggled cigarettes.

Mr Weyman said he was told that he would be doing a day's "unloading and packing" for �100, "no questions asked", while Mr Cahill told customs officials he "did not have a clue" about what he would be doing.

Second warehouse

But Mr Bradbury said: "They must have known what they were involved in."

"It was their part of a large smuggling operation for the purposes of evading duty, so they [the cigarettes] could be sold on the black market."

Searches by customs officers found thousands of bootlegged Regal and Sovereign cigarettes in the mattresses, and also in hollow rolls of polythene.

And goods were found at a second warehouse at nearby Winchester Farm.

Mr Weyman, from Oxford Place, Easton, Bristol, and Mr Cahill, from Caraway Gardens, Eastville, Bristol, both deny dealing with goods chargeable with duty with intent to defraud.

Five other men were also arrested.

The case continues.