Mohammed Abdulrehman, 25, from Didsbury, is now starting a two year prison sentence after police watched on as the drugs were transferred from a lorry into his Fiat Doplo van in Gloucestershire.

Abdulrehman, 25, Plot to smuggle £1.4m of cannabis as his Dessert business flops, is Jailed

Gloucester Crown Court heard that Abdulrehman, who has no previous convictions, was £15,000 in debt after his business failed.

Abdulrehman went to collect cannabis from a Dutch lorry driver in the Travelodge car park just off the A417, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire Live reported.

John Lader’s HGV contained a number of boxes which initially appeared to be part of a legitimate business to transport flowers.

But the boxes actually contained cannabis which had been vacuum packed to prevent it from smelling and alerting the authorities.

Prosecutors said the lorry contained 141 kilograms of cannabis, which had a potential street value of £1.4million.

Abdulrehman was set to receive 47kg of the drug, and Lader was planning to make a further four drops later that day.

The court accepted that Lader believed the boxes he was transporting from Holland contained illicit tobacco, not cannabis.

On the day of the drop off, on October 29 last year, he arrived in the car park at about 12.20pm, and Lader followed at 1pm.

Officers who had been observing the drop-off then arrested the pair.

Abdulrehman, of Golbourne Avenue, Didsbury, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cannabis and attempted possession with intent to supply cannabis.

Lader, 51, of Voorschoten in the Netherlands, previously received 16 months in jail, suspended for two years, for four offences of attempting to fraudulently evade duty on tobacco products between October 6 and 30 last year.