A CRICKLEWOOD man has been jailed for 18 months for his part in a cannbis ring caught with £2m worth of the drug.

Preparation equipment was found at the Ebbsfleet Road flat belonging to El-Hosain Charkaoui, 39, after police arrested four other men caught with 600kg of the class B drug in May last year.

One of the men, El-Hosain's nephew Hanid Charkaoui, 31, who was found in possession of a set of keys to the flat, was jailed for seven and a half years for his part in the plot.

Fouad Raihini, 34, from Acton and Paul Mottley and Dawood Ahmad, both from Manchester, were jailed after being caught transferring boxes containing cannabis between vans after a surveillance operation.

When officers raided El-Hosain's flat they found a money counting machine, about 6kg of amphetamine and a total of 29 cellophane wrapped packages of cannabis resin inside sports bags concealed around the flat.

Notting Hill shopkeeper Hamid initially told officers he had picked up the boxes from Park Royal as a favour to a friend along with Raihini, but didn't know what they boxes contained.

He added the keys found in his car were his uncle's and he did not know what was in the flat.

El-Hosain was arrested 12 days later, on May 19, after returning from holiday in Spain and claimed he had lent his keys to his cousin and knew nothing of the drugs.

Detective Inspector Marion Ryan of the serious and organised crime command said: "This was a significant haul of cannabis that we have successfully removed from circulation.

“Today's sentencing is testament to how seriously the criminal justice system takes this class B drug."