A SYMONDS Yat man charged with plotting to set up a £140 million ecstasy factory also conned Irish customs officers into giving classified information on how criminals smuggle red diesel.

Newport Crown Court heard that Andrew James Bellew, aged 37, posed as a BBC researcher when he travelled to meet customs officers after reading on the Internet about how to extract dye from the illegal car fuel.

The ploy was revealed during the trial of Bellew and three Newport men who all deny conspiracy to produce amphetamines and ecstasy and intention to supply amphetamines, between January and April 1998.

The jury at Newport Crown Court heard Bellew confess during police interview that he was a "wheeler dealer" who would buy and sell "anything I can get my hands on."

Bellew has also admitted producing and marketing GHB, a sedative known as legal ecstasy. He advertised the drug he formulated in his kitchen in the adult comic, Zit, saying he didn't realise a medical license was necessary to make and sell the substance which helps sleeplessness and weight loss.

While admitting he is a 'chemical dealer', Bellew says his industry is limited to GHB and red diesel. He claims he never sought to produce amphetamines - though the court heard that co-accused Andrew Holwell stored two tablet making machines for a Monmouth man he had never met.