AN EAST Lancashire man who was involved in plot to smuggle £10million worth of drugs has been jailed for eight years.

Malcolm Broadhurst, 49, formerly of Milking Lane, Lower Darwen, was part of a gang of four sentenced to a total of 22 years in prison.

Broadhurst, who lived most recently in Alicante, Spain, was involved in arranging transport along with two of his co-accused, Manchester Crown Court heard.

The gang was smashed on Friday 16 December 2005, when officers from Greater Manchester Police's Serious Crime Division (drugs unit) observed a lorry stop at a unit at the Roundthorne Industrial Estate in Tilson Road, Wythenshawe.

Officers saw three large pallets being unloaded and taken into the unit.

The pallets contained 1,988 bars of cannabis resin, weighing 493 kilos, concealed inside boxes of garden trellises.

This was the culmination of an investigation into the importation and distribution of cannabis from Spain into the North West.

Officers said they had also identified 11 other drug deliveries to the same industrial unit in the preceding 14 months.

Inquiries also revealed a further consignment of pallets, which had been delivered to a warehouse in Warwickshire, which contained two-and-a-half tonnes of cannabis resin hidden inside a consignment of furniture.

Speaking after the court case, Detective Inspector John Ogdon said: "Once again, we have significantly disrupted the drugs supply chain.

"A huge amount of cannabis was prevented from ending up on the streets and causing misery.

"This result has only been achieved through the commitment and tenacity of drug unit staff."

Broadhurst's co-accused were James Michael McGuiness, 41, of Lord Lane, Failsworth, Oldham, who was jailed for seven-and-a -half years; Terence Benson, 51, of Livingstone Way, Middlewich, Cheshire, who got six-and-a-half years' imprisonment; and Terence Henshaw, 51, of Croyden Drive, Newton Heath, nine months.

McGuinness, Benson and Broadhurst were principally involved with arranging transport and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply controlled drugs at an earlier hearing.

Henshaw pleaded guilty to being involved in the supply of controlled drugs.

In 2006, three other men were jailed for a total of 11-and-a-half years in connection with the plot.