Cheshire driver jailed 10 years for £2.7m Poole cannabis resin haul
Ian John Bridgwater, a truck driver from Ellesmere Port, was jailed for 10 years at Bournemouth Crown Court after customs officers found shrink-wrapped pallets of cannabis resin hidden in his lorry at Poole Ferryport on 13 May 2003. He denied knowing the drugs were there, but the judge said he played a vital role in the supply chain.
On 13 May 2003 customs officers at Poole Ferryport stopped a UK-registered truck driven by Ian John
Bridgwater, of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, and found shrink-wrapped pallets of cannabis resin hidden
behind a legitimate load.[1][2]Officers first valued the haul at £3 million, and Bridgwater was
arrested at the scene.[2]
Bridgwater pleaded not guilty and insisted throughout his trial that he had no idea the drugs were in
his vehicle, but a jury at Bournemouth Crown Courtconvicted him on a majority verdict.[1]The judge
said he had played a vital role in the supply chain and jailed him for 10 years for smuggling
cannabis then valued at £2.7 million.[1]A Customs spokesman said hard drugs were the priority but
officers would keep upholding the cannabis law, calling it an excellent detection and warning that
Poole should not be seen as a soft touch.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
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)
