A career criminal responsible for shipping tonnes of cannabis and cocaine to the UK was sentenced to 24 years’ imprisonment this week after being caught concealing the drugs in imitation Jamaican yams made from fibreglass.

Ronnie Melius, of Essex, used the cover of a seemingly legitimate logistics company to oversee five separate consignments of illegal drugs in less than two years.

Purporting to be shipping exotic produce to the UK from the Caribbean, he tried to smuggle more than 1.7 tonnes of cannabis as well as bring in high-purity cocaine.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) worked with the UK Border Forces officers in December last year following the seizure of 14kg of cocaine and 70kg of herbal cannabis by UK Border Force officers at Heathrow Airport. The drugs were concealed in a large load of the fake Jamaican yams.

Officers removed the drugs and then followed the consignment and Melius’s conspirators to an industrial estate in Essex. As the five conspirators unloaded the van next to a container belonging to Melius, SOCA officers moved in and arrested them. Melius himself was apprehended some weeks later when he returned to the UK from the Caribbean.

Four of Melius’s gang have also been jailed and a fifth is awaiting sentencing.

Following the trial at Reading Crown Court, SOCA’s regional head of investigations, Paul Jenkins, said: “Melius is a significant figure in international drug trafficking. He and the others sentenced played a key role in importing cocaine and cannabis into the UK, and attempted to manipulate the legitimate trade in fresh produce to do so.

“The vigilance of Border Force, combined with a multi-agency investigation led by SOCA, prevented them from importing large quantities of drugs which would have damaged individuals and communities through drug abuse and associated criminality.”

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