One of the biggest drugs hauls in recent years was of cannabis with a street value of £13m.
Co Down businessman Martin Kerfoot was jailed for 12 years in 2008 after he was caught in his Newtownards transport firm in October 2006 with 3.5 tonnes of cannabis resin.
The Bangor man admitted arranging the shipment but denied he knew drugs were inside. Kerfoot was a partner in a removal and storage company. The drugs were brought into the country in hollowed-out wooden doors which were stacked into pallets, loaded into a lorry and imported from Spain.
When police stormed Kerfoot's business premises they found the drugs were in the process of being unloaded from the lorry into a rental van and a company vehicle.
The drugs, believed to come from Morocco, were picked up in Spain and driven up through Europe into England, then by ferry to Dublin before arriving in Northern Ireland.
Sentencing Kerfoot at Belfast Crown Court, Mr Justice McLaughlin said it was "quite clear" that what was found was "the culmination of a criminal enterprise that must have been massive".
Co Down businessman Martin Kerfoot was jailed for 12 years in 2008 after he was caught in his Newtownards transport firm in October 2006 with 3.5 tonnes of cannabis resin.
The Bangor man admitted arranging the shipment but denied he knew drugs were inside. Kerfoot was a partner in a removal and storage company. The drugs were brought into the country in hollowed-out wooden doors which were stacked into pallets, loaded into a lorry and imported from Spain.
When police stormed Kerfoot's business premises they found the drugs were in the process of being unloaded from the lorry into a rental van and a company vehicle.
The drugs, believed to come from Morocco, were picked up in Spain and driven up through Europe into England, then by ferry to Dublin before arriving in Northern Ireland.
Sentencing Kerfoot at Belfast Crown Court, Mr Justice McLaughlin said it was "quite clear" that what was found was "the culmination of a criminal enterprise that must have been massive".
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