Gary Allen Playford, 37, and Trevor Harry Griffiths, 31, both plead not guilty to murder of Paul Black, 38, and Aaron Smith, 26, on January 23, 2009

TWO business associates shot and killed two men and robbed them of $100,000 during a drug deal gone wrong, a Brisbane jury hears.

TWO Brisbane business associates shot and killed two men and robbed them of $100,000 during a drug deal gone wrong and buried their bodies in graves dug prior to the heist, a jury has been told.

A Supreme Court jury in Brisbane was told Gary Allen Playford and Trevor Harry Griffiths murdered Paul Black, 38, and Aaron Smith, 26, in Pub Lane at New Beith, 40km south of Brisbane, after 8pm on January 23, 2009.

The jury was told Playford and Griffiths had arranged for the sale of 40kgs of marijuana to Black and Smith for $200,000, but decided to murder the pair and rob them because they did not have any drugs to sell them.

Prosecutor Ben Power said an associate of Playford and Griffiths, Richard Brunelle, had helped find Black and Smith to purchase the drugs.

However, he said Mr Brunelle was not privy to Playford and Griffiths' plan and was subsequently shot in the thigh as he sat in the car in which Black and Smith where shot in the head and killed.

Playford, 37, and Griffiths, 31, today both pleaded not guilty to one count each of murdering Black and Smith.

They also pleaded not guilty to a charge of unlawfully wounding Brunelle.

Mr Power, in his opening to the jury, showed a video re-enactment in which Playford told police during a walk-through of the crime scene how he approached the Holden Crewman utility and fired a number of shots at Smith, seated in the rear passenger seat, and Black, who was in the driver's seat, with a sawn-off .22 semi-automatic rifle.

Mr Power said Playford admitted to police he planned to kill both men and rob them, but that Griffiths maintained only one of the pair needed to be killed.

The jury was told after the pair were shot and killed, with fatal wounds to their heads, Griffith and Playford loaded their bodies on to the tray of their Hi-Lux utility and dumped them in 2m deep trenches located on Playford's 16 acre property and then buried them using a backhoe.

Mr Power said Griffith and Playford later dumped the car Black and Smith had been travelling in and purchased fuel used to burn the vehicle.

He said even though the car was badly burned in the ensuing inferno, police later found a receipt for the fuel at the scene which was linked to the accused killers who had used a company "Diesel and Dirt'' credit card to make the purchase.

The jury was told after the shooting Playford and Griffiths dropped their wounded associate Brunelle, who had no knowledge of the pair’s plan to kill the other two men, off at Greenbank and told him to contact the emergency triple 0 for assistance.

Mr Power said Playford and Griffiths instructed Brunelle to tell authorities he was injured in a random drive-by shooting as he was out walking.

He said police later recovered $70,000 of blood stained money in the possession of Griffith's father and $5000 in the possession of Playford's wife.

The court was told Playford and Griffiths were arrested while staying at a house in Walla Walla, in NSW near the Victorian border, and extradited back by Queensland police for questioning.

The trial before Justice Glenn Martin continues.