Two men have been found guilty of smuggling millions of pounds worth of cannabis from the USA into South Wales by post.
They were members of an organised crime gang who used the postal service to send over 300kg of the drug from New York and California in mislabelled packages.
The gang were arrested in a series of raids last December after Border Force seized more than 20 packages from a sorting office in Barry.
Eight men - including one from Barry - and a woman had already admitted conspiracy to import cannabis and supply controlled class B drugs.
Newport Crown Court heard officers from Tarian, the regional organised crime unit in South Wales, found the group, led by Abubakr Khawar, sourced wholesale cannabis from the United States to sell in the UK between November 2022 and December 2024.
It was shipped over in parcels using delivery services and concealed in vaccum packs, disguised as items such as clothing and toys to avoid detection.
They were then delivered to addresses across South Wales with recruited individuals paid between £50 and £200 to recieve them.
An investigation found the gang were generating sales of over £10,000 a day and importing around 23kg of cannabis a week.
The parcels intercepted by the Border Force were said to be worth between £7.5 million and £11.2 million.
Last December, Tarian arrested the gang members in a series of raids.
Khawar (28), of Riverside, Cardiff - who led the sourcing of the cannabis - went onto plead guilty, along with six other gang members. They were:
- Daniel Marshall, (40) of Treharris, Merthyr Tydfil
- Andrew Pethers (36) of St Melons, Cardiff
- Sophie Jones (32) of Splott, Cardiff
- Kyle Solowyk (29) of Barry
- Ceiron Jones (28) of Whitchurch, Cardiff
- Solomon Bertram (36) of Llanishen, Cardiff
Mohammed Hussain (28) of Cardiff, who oversaw the delivery of the parcels, initially denied conspiracy to import cannabis, along with Abdu Husain (28) of Leckwith, Cardiff, but both changed their pleas to guilty during the trial. They had already admitted conspiracy to supply Class B controlled drugs.
Sean Montgomery (24) of Rumney, Cardiff and Steven Munroe (44) of Riverside, Cardiff, denied all charges but on Wednesday, they were found guilty by a jury.
All eleven defendants were remanded in custody awaiting sentencing, which is due to begin in September.
Following the verdicts, DCI Sean Meyrick of the Tarian unit, said: "I welcome the verdicts reached today, and await the outcome of the sentencing hearing."
“I would like to thank Border Force for their assistance in this investigation, and colleagues at Tarian and our constituent forces.”
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