Five Manchester men were jailed on 18 October 2013 for running a cannabis supply network that brought the drug into England from the Netherlands.[1] Carmello Anthony Abela, 53, received 18 years and his brother Geno Abela, 42, received 15 years; Michael Levvy, 44, was jailed for 12 years, Ian Thompson, 42, for five years, and Rizwan Safdar, 30, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply, for 20 months.[1] The judge called it the largest prosecution for cannabis supply ever brought in Britain.[1]
Operation Bizarre
West Yorkshire Police launched Operation Bizarre in 2011 against gangs distributing cannabis across the north of England.[1] In December 2011 officers stopped a vehicle on the M67 and seized about 50 kilos of cannabis worth £422,450, which led them to a supply premises on the Roe Cross Industrial Estate in Mottram.[1] A search there pointed to a cold-storage company in County Durham, where officers found a 1.8-tonne shipment valued at £7,819,645 hidden in a cover load of frozen meat.[1]
Police linked the Abelas to a fake transport company behind 13 earlier shipments carrying as much as 20 tonnes of cannabis, which the authorities valued at more than £80 million.[1] The prosecution put the drugs’ conservative value above £100 million.[2] After an eight-week trial at Minshull Street Crown Court, a Manchester businessman defended by James Gregory and Dan Thomas was the only defendant acquitted.[2]
