Four members of a "sophisticated" drugs gang have been jailed for 25 years after police found their huge stash of cannabis worth about £6million.
Gang ringleader Danny Sharland, 41, and his right-hand man Daniel Brazier, 38, hid the cannabis haul inside wooden crates which were disguised to look like a glass shipment, Essex Police said.
Some of the cannabis was discovered in a lorry after it left Lodge Farm in Mayland, Essex, by officers making routine roadside checks on January 28 this year.
The lorry driver Peter Tough, 53, and his accomplice Danny Williams, 41, were arrested at the scene.
More cannabis was discovered at the industrial unit in Lodge Farm. In total police found 1,330 packets of cannabis resin with an estimated street value of £6,622,500.
The gang disguised the cannabis, which had been imported from Spain, as glass shipments by separating the crates with mirrors and glass panes.
Sharland, of Highwood Close, Brentwood, was today jailed for seven-and-a-half years at Basildon Crown Court after he admitted being concerned with the supply of cannabis.
Brazier, of Gadwall Close, Canning Town; Tough, of Leslie Road, Newham, and Williams, of no fixed address, were each jailed for six years after admitting the same offence.
Detective superintendent Ed Mayo, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: “These men were an integral part of a sophisticated organised criminal gang who imported drugs on a large scale.
“Sharland was the leader of the four, while Brazier was a trusted member of the group who orchestrated Tough and Williams, the physical workers, in moving the consignment.
“These men are now behind bars after a lengthy police investigation, in which a substantial amount of cannabis resin has been taken off the streets.”
