A UK court has found four Ghanaians guilty of smuggling £4.5 million worth of cannabis into the country.
The drugs were hidden in sacks of gari powder and shipped from Ghana to south Essex.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Ghanaian Narcotics Control Commission collaborated to intercept the shipment and identify the individuals involved.
The convicted individuals, Daniel Yeboah, 54; Kristoffen Baidoo, 48; Kwaku Bonsu, 52; and Edward Adjei, 48, were found guilty after a three-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.
The drugs were discovered in a shipping container at Tilbury Docks in December 2019.
Intelligence suggested the container held drugs, and a search revealed 2,335 packages of herbal cannabis weighing 1.5 tonnes.
The NCA replaced the drugs with dummy packages and monitored the container as it traveled to an industrial yard in north London.
The defendants were arrested after they fled the site, realizing the drugs were missing.
The investigation uncovered a 10-tonne hydraulic press, mobile phones, and dash cams, which provided evidence of their involvement.
-BY Daniel Bampoe