A pensioner who helped smuggle millions of pounds of drugs in chicken fat has been jailed.

Derek Mercer, from South Norwood, was sentenced to eight years at Southwark Crown court on Thursday, October 1, for importing two tonnes of cannabis.

The 70-year-old, who at one point needed a hearing aid during his trial, was part of a gang of five, with a combined age of 312, who smuggled the drugs through Mercer’s haulage firm in Grays, Essex.

Officers from the Middle Market Drugs Partnership were involved in an operation on March 17 this year at the site, where a load from a lorry had been split up and loaded onto two lorries, a van and a car.

Police moved in and arrested the five men for conspiracy to import controlled drugs. A further two men fled the scene.

Searches of the warehouse area found 12 pallets at various stages of being loaded onto the vehicles.

Inside was two tonnes of herbal and resin cannabis.

The lorry's load was supposed to be frozen chicken but the pallets seized had a cover load of chicken fat on them with £5.5m (street value) worth of cannabis below.

Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) principle officer Nigel Eeles, from the Middle Market Drugs Partnership, said: "This case demonstrates that those involved in organised crime don't always retire from it.

"The seizure is significant in size and it is another success for the Middle Market Drugs Partnership where again we have prevented the trafficking of the drugs into the UK that would otherwise have ended up causing harm on our streets and creating substantial profit for this criminal organisation."

• Get the latest crime figures in our Local Information section