The ringleader of an international gang importing and supplying skunk cannabis into Bradford and other areas has been ordered to repay £4.7 million.
Johannes Elmendorp, 52, who is serving an 18-year prison sentence, has been told he must pay the money within six months or face a further five years in jail.
Elmendorp, of Austria, was jailed at Leeds Crown Court in 2011 for organising the UK side of a multi-million pound conspiracy in which an estimated £150 million of cannabis was imported into the UK from the Netherlands between 2008 and 2009 secreted inside boxes of fresh flowers.
Using legitimate haulage companies, other members of the gang co-ordinated the transportation of the flower boxes from Holland to areas in Bradford and Leeds.
The investigation involved West Yorkshire Police’s Crime Division, West Mercia Police, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency and Dutch and German authorities.
During the confiscation proceedings, the wholesale value of the drugs were valued at £47 million.
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