Paul Gurr organised two shipments of cannabis resin from Spain concealed in boxes of cucumbers, and used two separate gangs to distribute them from industrial premises in Essex to buyers connected to Essex, Kent and Manchester.[1] In June 2010 he and eleven others were jailed for a total of 66 years and nine months for attempting to distribute almost four tonnes across England.[1][2] More than 3.8 tonnes of resin with a street value above £11 million was recovered, enough for about 11 million joints.[2]
On 27 June 2009 SOCA officers watched an HGV leave Convoy Commercials in Orsett, where father and son Gary and Robert Holden loaded buyers’ cars with boxes of resin before returning them at the nearby Kings Arms pub.[1] Officers stopped two cars on the A13 carrying over 200 kg, arrested yard controller John Chalkley, and later arrested David Freeman; the seizure totalled 1.85 tonnes.[1]
Undeterred, Gurr tried again two weeks later.[1] On 12 July 2009 Stephen Adamson and Ian Scott loaded an HGV trailer with cucumber boxes at the Western International Market in Hounslow and took it to Dagenham, where they emptied the cucumbers and repacked foil-wrapped resin.[1] Officers arrested all four men at the scene plus driver John Fearnley, whose van held just over one tonne, and picked up Gurr in a Brentwood restaurant.[1] Gurr pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to possess a Class B drug with intent to supply and received seven and a half years on each, to run concurrently; the others received between four and a half and seven years.[1]
