A well-trodden cannabis smuggling trail used to fl

A well-trodden cannabis smuggling trail used to flood Britain with millions of pounds worth of the drug was discovered thanks to suspicious freight handlers.

A well organised gang were believed to have followed a familiar formula to
import the Class B drug from Holland to Portsmouth via Tilbury Docks in Essex on six successful runs.

But in March last year, customs officers were called to a warehouse in Rainham, Essex, where a shipment of IKEA light fittings had caused eyebrows to be raised by staff at a freight forwarding company.

Suspicions regarding the load led staff to contact Customs and Excise.

Officers then broke open sealed pallets to discover 245kg of cannabis and 173kg of cannabis resin concealed inside.

Drivers coming to take delivery were arrested – but told they were hired in
Hampshire to take the load to an industrial until in Waterlooville, Portsmouth.

London’s Southwark Crown Court was told the two men responsible for organising the transportation and the warehousing of the contraband vanished.

Paul Price, 38, was to give himself up a week later, but gang member Steven
Walsh, 28, remained on the run until October, last year, when he was arrested in the Preston area of Liverpool when he returned to the city he is a native of.

Price, of Thrush Walk, Waterlooville, Portsmouth, was jailed for four years
after he pleaded guilty to two charges of being knowingly concerned in the
drug smuggling.

Walsh, of Wykeham Road, Portsmouth, was found guilty of the two charges and
additionally, of possession of 2.

8kg of cannabis with intent to supply.

Jailing the pair, Judge Geoffrey Mercer described them as ‘intermediaries’ for international drug barons engaged in renting the industrial unit in Portsmouth and organising transportation

He said they were both involved in the smuggling of the consignment, said to
have a street value of some pnds stlng 1.

4 million.

And he said the 2.

8kg found under Walsh’s control was clearly ‘a residue from a previous importation.

‘

‘Between December 1998 and March last year, there were in fact six consignments of a similar nature entering the country from Holland,’ said the judge.

‘The number of pallets in each shipment gradually escalating.

‘On the evidence, all except one or two dry runs, also contained drugs but I
emphasise you both fall to be sentenced solely in respect of the matters of
which you have been convicted.

‘

The judge said the ‘substantial importation’ in March 1999 was ‘highly
organised’ and involved the use of bogus documents, false identities, and an
elaborate web of mobile telephone calls.

However, he accepted the pair were hired by paymasters ‘more deeply involved’ in the drug running ‘who no doubt stood to gain substantial rewards than either of you.

‘

Judge Mercer said even at the lower end of a managerial role, both defendants had played ‘vital’ parts in the smuggling operation.

ends