Two Hampshire men have been convicted of smuggling cannabis worth £50,000 from Spain into Britain.

Stephen Mott (43), of Church Lane, Nursling, and Anthony Hughes (47), of Woodlands Road, Netley Marsh, were caught in a two-and-a-half-year undercover police investigation, codenamed "Operation Roadie".

The pair were found to have brought shipments of the drug into the country, hidden among legitimate consignments in huge lorries, before being loaded into vans to be distributed across the UK.

Winchester Crown Court was told police officers from the Southampton branch of the National Crime Squad were covertly monitoring the entire scheme - even bugging Mott's car and listening to him talk in code about illegal shipments.

Officers made their move before any of the illegal substance ever reached the streets.

Judge Patrick Hooton said: "I would like to thank the police officers in this case because all of them have put an immense amount of work into it."

Officer in charge, Detective Inspector Vic Klinkosz, said: "This was a difficult investigation into a well-organised criminal group bases across Southampton, Kent and Lincolnshire as well as in Spain.

"Through these convictions, we have managed to destroy this supply chain into and around the UK.

"This success was only possible due to the hard work of officers based at the National Crime Squad Southampton branch and through our close work with our partners at the National Crime Intelligence service, Her Majesty's Custom and Excise and Spanish Law Enforcement.

Cleared of conspiracy to smuggle cannabis resin were Rodney Murray (37), of Deerlap Lane, Colbury, near Totton; Edward Hollis (56), of Gilbert Close, Gosport; Richard James Barber (48), of Kinsbourne Rise, Southampton, and Maurice Baker (56), of Grange Road, Southampton.

Seven other members of the gang had earlier pleaded guilty. They were Stephen Gregory (42), of Shirley Road, Shirley, Southampton; Terrence Gore (54), of Commercial Road, Southampton; Daniel Leach (23), of Longleat Gardens, Southampton; Adam Lane (26), of Sittingbourne, Kent; Samuel Jacobs (27), also of Sittingbourne; and Andrew Lloyd (38), of Grantham, Lincolnshire.

A date for sentencing has not yet been set.