An Irish solicitor and a British engineer were yesterday at the centre of one of Switzerland's biggest money laundering trials, accused of handling millions of pounds of Colombian cocaine profits.

Mr Paul Murphy, (40), from Dublin and Mr Andrew Winters, (47), from Carshalton, Surrey, have been in investigative custody in Tessin jail since December 1998, charged with heading up an international money-laundering operation.

Both have consistently denied allegations of laundering £4.5 million (€5.7 million) of drug money through the country's banks into accounts in a number of countries including Britain.

Prosecutors told the court in Lugano that the cash came from the sale of hundreds of kilos of cocaine that had been sent from Colombia to dealers around Europe.

Judge Agnese BalestraBianchi heard that the case had taken more than two years to come to court because the dealer network had been "extensive" and the financial transactions designed to cover up the source of the money had been "highly complicated".

The two men have admitted handling the money, for which they were each said to have been paid £200,000 commission - but claim they knew nothing about the source of the cash.

Prosecutor Ms Maria Galliani told the court that the 40-yearold Irishman had "organised more than 40 transactions between December 1997 and December 1998 dealing with more than 10.5 million Swiss francs (£4.5 million)."

The two men have denied charges of embezzlement, money laundering and breaches of the country's anti-drug laws following the sale of an estimated 543 kilos of cocaine.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.