Four men have been jailed after police found cannabis resin worth more than £6million on the back of a lorry and at an industrial unit.

Officers investigating a drugs supply ring stopped the hired flatbed lorry after it left premises at Lodge Farm in Grange Avenue, Mayland, on the morning of January 28, 2015.

It was loaded with wooden pallets in between panes of glass and mirrors.

But a roadside check revealed packages of drugs concealed within the pallets and police arrested the driver, Peter Tough, 53, and his passenger, Danny Williams, 41.

Another load packaged in the same way was found at the industrial unit.

Officers discovered a total of 1,330 individual packs of cannabis resin with an estimated weight of 1,324kg.

It had an approximate street value of £6,622,500.

Enquiries revealed the drugs were being hidden within glass shipments imported from Spain.

Gang ringleader, Danny Sharland, 41, of Highwood Close, Brentwood, right-hand man Daniel Brazier, 38, of Gadwell Close, London, Williams, of no fixed address, and Tough, of Leslie Road, Newham, pleaded guilty to being concerned with the supply of cannabis at an earlier hearing at Basildon Crown Court.

They returned to court for sentencing today, Thursday, May 28.

Sharland was jailed for seven-and-a-half years and Brazier, Tough and Williams were each jailed for six years.

Ds Ed Mayo, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "These men were an integral part of a sophisticated organised criminal gang who imported drugs on a large scale."