Three members of a criminal group, who used a religious charity as a front to import 400 kilograms of cannabis valued at £2 million from Jamaica into the UK, six years ago, have been convicted.

Fifty-year-old Dalton Anderson, 45-year-old Alvin Russell and 64-year-old Sinclair Tucker were convicted this week following a five week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

 

The men were found guilty of conspiracy to import class B drugs (cannabis). Anderson was also found guilty of possession with intent to supply class B drugs after five kilograms of the drug was found at his home following his arrest.

 

They will be sentenced on January 27 next year.

 

The UK National Crime Agency investigated the trio after Birmingham based organisation, Vision Christian Ministries, was used to smuggle the drug.

 

The cannabis was trafficked from Jamaica to the UK, via Birmingham Airport, and had been packed into sealed tins of callaloo and ackee.

 

It was shipped in three separate consignments addressed to the Christian ministry between March and May 2017 and seized by the Border Force.

 

The men were arrested at the airport on May 23 of that year, while inspecting the third consignment which had just arrived.

 

NCA investigators established that the men organised the imports and collected the drug from the airport.

 

Anderson and Russell also spent some time in Jamaica when the importations were made, handling money and providing shipping documentation to the Christian ministry via Tucker.