A Manchester gang smuggled £9m of cannabis out of the country to sell it for a premium price. The gang hid kilo packages of the class B drug in wooden flooring and transported it to Northern Ireland, where dealers typically charge more than in England.

Yudong Ouyang, 32, and Gary Hon, 26, worked on the Manchester side of the drugs ring, packing the cannabis onto HGVs from a storage unit in the city before they were driven by unsuspecting legitimate haulage firms and transported over the Irish Sea.

Both men have now received prison sentences, with Ouyang set to be deported to his native China. Prosecuting, Isabelle Haddad said the cannabis was grown at farms across the north west before being driven to Northern Ireland, where the drugs could command a ‘premium price’.

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