Ian Johnson, 28, was jailed for eight years at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester after admitting conspiracy to supply drugs.[1] His brother-in-law William Probert, 36, of Exeter Road in Davyhulme, admitted possessing £600,000 worth of the cannabis with intent to supply and was jailed for four years.[1]

Johnson, a warehouseman living in Selby Drive, Lancaster, was arrested at Probert’s Davyhulme home after a surveillance operation tracked him driving his works van the 60 miles from Lancaster toward Manchester.[1] Officers recovered 232 kg of cannabis packed in boxes at Probert’s address and a further 860 kg from a locked shed at Johnson’s garage in Lancaster, a haul weighing more than one metric tonne that the paper valued at £8 million and said was destined for Manchester streets and nightspots.[1] The paper said Johnson was probably close to the smugglers who had imported the cannabis into Britain.[1]

Both men were ordered to declare their means ahead of a proceeds-of-crime hearing later in the year to determine whether they must surrender financial assets.[1]