Lorry driver jailed for 107 kg of cannabis in counterweight
Canterbury Crown Court sentenced Newry lorry driver Seamus Keenan to three years on 20 May 2013 for trying to smuggle about 107 kilograms of cannabis resin through Dover hidden inside a machinery counterweight. Border Force officers had stopped his Irish-registered lorry at the Eastern Docks in January 2011 and found the drugs, valued at around 300,000 pounds.
Canterbury Crown Court sentenced Seamus Keenan, a 48-year-old lorry driver from Newry, County Down, to three years in prison on 20 May 2013 for trying to smuggle about 107 kilograms of cannabis resin into Britain.[1][2]Keenan had pleaded guilty at the same court in July 2012.[1]
Border Force officers stopped his Irish-registered lorry at Dover’s Eastern Docks on 31 January 2011 and scanned its load of a dump truck and excavator spare parts including a counterweight.[1][2]On closer examination they found the drugs hidden inside the counterweight.[1][2]The haul had an estimated potential street value of more than 300,000 pounds.[1][2]
Malcolm Bragg of Border Force said the force was at the forefront of stopping drugs entering the country and was determined to protect society from activity with a destructive impact on local communities.[1]
Photos and video
The machinery counterweight with the hidden cannabis resin found in Keenan's lorry.Photo details
Callum Roper, 22, of Holton Road, Barry, was jailed for 30 months at Cardiff Crown Court after admitting offences involving the supply of cannabis and magic mushrooms. He pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of both drugs between 3 December 2025 and 14 September 2026 and had been remanded in custody awaiting sentence.
Bolton Crown Court sentenced seven members of three linked drug gangs that trafficked cocaine and cannabis between Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and North Wales. Five men received prison sentences of up to eleven and a half years, while two couriers received community orders and two leaders await later sentencing.
Daniel Thompson, 36, was found with 8,223.6 grams of cannabis resin, valued at up to £35,950, when officers searched a house on Moss Side Lane in Rixton in July 2023. Chester Crown Court gave him a nine-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months and 100 hours of unpaid work after he admitted possessing the resin with intent to supply and possessing cocaine.
Sentenced 1Cannabis 8.2236 kgPrison 9 months suspended for 12 months
Bradford Crown Court jailed Alfie Leahy, 21, for five years and Connor Broadbent, 26, for three years and four months over drugs found when police raided two homes in the Holmewood area at dawn on 17 July 2026. Cannabis was seized at a Grayswood Crescent address and cocaine, cash and jewellery at Dawson Street; police put the total street value of the drugs at more than £22,000.
Charged 2Prison 5 years (Leahy); 3 years and 4 months (Broadbent)
