Leicestershire driver jailed six years over 150 kg Channel Tunnel resin
A jury at Canterbury Crown Court found Eyres Monsell truck driver Anthony James guilty of smuggling 150 kg of cannabis resin found at the Channel Tunnel control zone in France, and he was jailed for six years. Customs valued the resin, hidden among pallets driven back from Spain, at £322,000.
Anthony James, a truck driver from Eyres Monsell in Leicestershire, denied
smuggling 150 kg of cannabis resin into Britain, but a jury at Canterbury Crown
Court found him guilty and he was jailed for six years.[1]His trailer had
been stopped at the UK Channel Tunnel control zone in France on 28 January
2005, where customs officers found the resin, valued at £322,000, hidden among
six pallets he had driven back from Spain.[1]
He told customs the pallets belonged to a company in Cambridge and that he was
filling in for another driver called Terry Smith.[1]Officers found no such
company existed and Smith had not been due to drive that week.[1]Judge
Anthony Webb told him that without people like him, the trade could not move
drugs through.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Darren Davis, 39, a homeless man, and his partner Catherine Evans, 36, were sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court in November 2026 for dealing 'spice' and a small cannabis quantity. Police found Davis carrying six bags of spice worth up to £750 on 2 June, and later searches of his hostel, a storage unit and Evans' home uncovered more drugs and thousands of pounds in cash.
Joel Niven, 20, of Walney near Barrow-in-Furness, was convicted of cannabis possession after officers recovered a sealed bag from him at Barrow Park. Magistrates fined him £80, ordered £117 in costs and surcharge, and sought forfeiture of the drugs. He had a previous caution for cannabis possession from December 2025.
Rorie Jeffs, 25, of Aylesbury, was found guilty of possession of cannabis at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court and ordered to pay £85 plus a further £26 surcharge. He was one of the most recent cases concluded at the court as reported in the 10 November 2026 round-up.
Three men were each jailed for four years over a large-scale cannabis factory in Greenock's former Tobacco Warehouse, raided in June 2025 with more than 1,000 plants. Ariel Ruko has appealed his sentence, with a hearing due at the High Court in Edinburgh on 17 November 2026.
