Eight members of a drug-smuggling gang were jailed for a total of 45 years at Bristol Crown Court for trafficking about 10 tonnes of skunk cannabis from the Netherlands hidden in lorry-loads of flowers.[1] Ringleader David Barnes, 41, of Hungerford, was jailed for 12 years, Michael Woodage, 51, of Whitchurch, for eight years, and their six accomplices for terms of between seven and three-and-a-half years.[1]
Between January and May 2009 the gang bought cut flowers at the Naaldwijk market near The Hague, hid bags of cannabis beneath the blooms in their own warehouses, and drove the lorries through the Hook of Holland to ferries bound for Harwich.[2] The drugs went first to a storage unit at Whittonditch near Ramsbury, then to a barn at Poplar Farm in Wanborough, which Barnes had turned into a fortress with a reinforced steel door and infra-red cameras, where the cannabis was repackaged for dealers across England and Ireland.[2][3] Ledgers at the farm linked it to the importation and distribution of about 10 tonnes at a rate of 800 kg a week, a 60 million pound operation; police put the street value of the cannabis seized at 30 million pounds.[2][3]
Arrests and trial
Eight men and a woman were arrested during the joint British-Dutch investigation.[2] The scheme unravelled in April 2009: police following a van from Poplar Farm found 50 kg of skunk inside, then searched the farm and stopped Woodage’s van the same night with 226 kg aboard, and Barnes was arrested at Heathrow Airport on 28 April after answering no comment to every question.[2][3] Five defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class B drugs before trial.[2][3] After one trial collapsed over jury tampering, Barnes, Woodage and Christopher Wills were convicted following a six-week trial and a ninth defendant, Stephen Docking, was acquitted.[3]
