Three men who planned to sell almost £2 million of cannabis on the streets of Essex have been put behind bars today following a covert operation by police.

Robert Preston, aged 54, Lee Samways, 25, and Stephen Demetriou, 23, were all jailed when they appeared at Basildon Crown Court today.

Police had observed Preston and Samways collecting the consignment of cannabis from a depot in West Thurrock under the guise that they were couriers collecting fish food on behalf of Gillingham McCarthy Fishbaits - a company that had been set up solely as a front to import controlled drugs by Demetriou.

He was the director of the firm and the drugs were imported into Harwich from the Netherlands and then transported to the freight depot in West Thurrock.

Two vans were stopped by police at around 7am driven by Preston and Samways, who were subsequently arrested on suspicion of being involved in the supply of drugs. They were detained on the A13 roundabout at junction 31 of the M25 and found to be in possession of 196 kilos of Cannabis.

Following on from their arrests detectives then subsequently arrested Demetriou. They were all charged with conspiracy to import Class B drugs and Preston and Demetriou were also charged with money laundering.

Preston and Demetriou admitted conspiracy to import and money laundering, whilst Samways denied all charges before pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class B a week before his trial was scheduled in October 2014.

Preston, of Great Stony Park, Ongar, and Demetriou of Wallace Way, Romford, were given prison sentences of four years and three months, Samways, also of Great Stony Park, was jailed for 21 months.

In sentencing HHJ Owen-Jones described the importation as a sophisticated operation of which the profit would have been substantial.

DC Jo Worrow, said: "Thanks to a covert operation by the Essex Police Serious and Organised Crime Unit almost 200 kilos of skunk cannabis were seized and prevented from reaching the streets of Essex.

"This organised crime group has now been dismantled and their sentences will prevent them from continuing their drug dealing enterprise and stop them from gaining further from it financially.

"We will continue to act proactively on any intelligence we receive on illegal drugs being supplied to people in Essex and would urge anyone with information to contact us on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”