A pensioner who helped import enough cannabis to make two joints for every person in Britain has been jailed.

John Wright, of Windsor Road, Hounslow, was one of two men jailed for what is believed to be one of the UK's biggest ever cannabis smuggling operations.

The 66-year-old and his partner-in-crime, Steven McDonald, were part of a gang which imported more than 28 tonnes of the class B drug into the country over seven years.

Wright and McDonald, 32, of Capstone Road, Chatham, in Kent, both admitted conspiring to import class B drugs.

Steven McDonald

At Luton Crown Court on March 13, they were sentenced to nine years and four months, and eight years in prison respectively.

Both men will also be banned from travelling outside the UK for 10 years after their release.

Detective Inspector Steve Miles, of the joint National Crime Agency and Met Police Organised Crime Partnership, said: "These men were involved in drug smuggling on a truly industrial scale over a number of years. The potential street value of the cannabis imported as part of this conspiracy would have been in excess of £80m.

"Using their contacts with criminal networks in the Netherlands they were able to set up elaborate fronts to cover their activities.

"But through our close work with the Dutch authorities and Border Force we were able to unpick that, and disrupt and then dismantle a very significant organised crime group responsible for bringing thousands of kilos of illegal drugs into the UK."

Some of the cannabis discovered at the row of garages in Wembley

Wright and McDonald were caught after Border Force officers at Harwich port intercepted a consignment of around 300kg of herbal cannabis disguised as floor tiles and shipped from the Netherlands last April.

Police followed the packages as they were delivered to an address in Whetstone, north London, where McDonald signed for them and drove them by van to a row of garages in Wembley, with Wright following.

Officers swooped as the pair tore open the parcels. The moment of their arrest was recorded, with both men saying 'we're done' as they realised their game was up.

As well as the consignment they followed to Wembley, police discovered a further 150kg of cannabis in another garage in the same row.

The men's homes were searched, revealing drug ledgers and evidence of bank transfers and trips to the Netherlands, where Wright had access to a rented apartment in the town of Lisse.

Police in the UK worked with their Dutch counterparts to uncover around 100 other importations from various addresses in the Netherlands to two companies used as a front by the pair.

One such shipment was apparently stolen at gunpoint by a rival gang, forcing the network to change the details of its arrangements on both sides of the North Sea.

Police are searching for this man, who used a fraudulently obtained passport with the name Mark Gamble

Police in the UK are still hunting a third man believed to have been involved in the drugs ring.

He is thought to have used a fraudulently obtained British passport in the name of Mark Gamble to rent the garages in Wembley and another premises in West Hampstead used as a delivery address.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts or true identity is asked to call the NCA on 0370 4967622.