When customs officers boarded the ocean-going tug Abbira at Southampton in 2008 they found more than 50,000 bars of cannabis resin packed inside its water and ballast tanks.[1] The haul weighed 12.5 tonnes and carried a street value of £36 million, one of the largest cannabis smuggling attempts ever seen in Britain.[1][2]

The Israeli-flagged vessel had started from the Spanish port of Ceuta, taken the drugs aboard off Larache in Morocco, and was shadowed to Britain in an international operation.[2] Six crew were on board while organisers on dry land helped coordinate plans, and on 9 April police moved in and arrested those involved.[1] Eight men were arrested six days after the tug berthed in Southampton.[3]

Trial

At Winchester Crown Court four Serbian, two Israeli and two Ukrainian men denied smuggling, while four other men, three from Leicester and one Israeli national, had already pleaded guilty.[3] The court heard the case in May 2009 and the jury retired to consider verdicts on eight defendants.[3] Six men, including 81-year-old Moshe Kedar, were found guilty, and all ten were charged with offences over importing a class C drug and jailed for between seven and ten years.[2]