Two Chinese nationals who smuggled cannabis worth £9 million (€10.4 million) into Northern Ireland hidden in wooden flooring have been jailed.
Yudong Ouyang (32) and Gary Hon (26), living in Manchester, were cultivating large crops of cannabis in the city and using heavy-goods vehicles (HGVs) to transport it by ferry to Northern Ireland where they knew they could charge a “premium price”, the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
The pair were using encrypted messaging platforms between June, 2019 and February, 2020, where they organised hiding the drugs in large pallets of wooden flooring.
The NCA said inner pallets of flooring were hollowed out to create a void where they could hide the drugs before organising shipping to Northern Ireland using a legitimate agent who was unaware of the criminal activity.
NCA investigators found there were up to 38 deliveries made by the group from Manchester to Belfast in the nine-month period.
Ouyang and Hon sent messages in Mandarin and translations showed that the contents discussed the cannabis trade, warehouse rentals and travel to Northern Ireland.
Other messages discussed how to hide the drugs and how they could secrete money when they returned to England.
One message stated: “I put the d(drug) money on me, not in the car, so the sniffing dog could not get the smell.”
The NCA said phone evidence also showed Ouyang regularly sent photos of cannabis, cannabis farms, or selfies of him at the farms to the gang.
His fingerprints and an invoice in his name were found at a cannabis farm raided as part of the operation.
Officers pieced together messages and phone calls with CCTV movements that showed how the group were in touch with each other before attending storage units to move pallets.
Despite attempting to appear as a legitimate business, NCA investigators found that pallets were occasionally shipped back from Northern Ireland to Manchester and other locations in England where it is believed the hollow void could be used again for a further export.
The standard weight of a pallet of the type used by Ouyang and Hon was 1,000kg.
Evidence showed declarations made by the group always weighed the pallet at 1,200kg, though it is believed 50kg of cannabis was moved in each delivery.
Contact details on invoices from the legitimate storage businesses were also linked back to the men.
Hon was arrested by NCA officers in February, 2022. Ouyang was arrested in December, 2023.
Ouyang and Hon appeared at Manchester Crown Court where Ouyang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class B drugs in January, 2024. Hon pleaded guilty to the same offence on June 25th, 2025. They were sentenced at the same court on Monday.
Hon received a prison sentence of three years and one month, while Ouyang received 3½ years’ imprisonment.
Barry Vinall, NCA operations manager, said: “Ouyang and Hon were key players in this large-scale cannabis supply operation, producing up to £9 million in profit and working closely with a wider group.
“They attempted to make their operations appear legitimate but investigators unravelled their vast communications and movements showing they would often transport pallets back across to England so they could be reused for further importations.
“This organised crime group targeted Northern Ireland as their market where they knew their drugs would attract a premium price.
“Gangs like those run by Ouyang and Hon fuel an industry that sees people transported to the UK to work illegally in cannabis farms and taking action against those involved in these crimes is a priority for the NCA.”
