A Warwick man has been convicted of a $6 million cannabis smuggling plot by a unanimous verdict.

After a two-month trial in Supreme Court, Darrin Virgil, 29, was found guilty of conspiring to import and supply cannabis found hidden in a shipment of steel. However, after deliberation, the jury freed his three remaining co-defendants. John Jefferis was found not guilty by a majority verdict of 10-2, while brothers Corte Gibbons and Iman Gibbons were cleared by a unanimous verdict.

Originally, seven men and one woman were charged in connection to the incident. However, Brian Anderson pleaded guilty during the trial and three other defendants — Dina Tucker, Damon Edwards and Shannon Trott — were found not guilty after Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves ruled that there was insufficient evidence to convict them.

The jury heard that on November 26, 2012, customs officers processing cargo of the Oleander ran an X-ray of a container with several steel sheets and noticed a series of rectangular objects hidden inside.

Days later, on November 29, police watched as the container was delivered to the Abbott’s Cliff area of Hamilton Parish. An officer testified that as the truck approached the area, Mr Jefferis waved down the vehicle.

He said Mr Jefferis spoke to the driver, after which the truck driver turned around and went into a field where the container was detached with Mr Jefferis’s help. Later that afternoon, several other men and a crane truck arrived at the scene and began to unload the container.

The court heard later that officers stopped the crane truck in the Parson’s Road area and the driver directed them to a property on Lime House Lane, which contained G&D Auto and the home of both Corte Gibbons and Iman Gibbons. The officers attended the scene, where they found the steel plates and several men, including the defendants.

Officers later discovered that hidden inside the steel sheets was 119kg of cannabis, with an estimated street value of more than $5.9 million.

The court also heard that Mr Jefferis and the Gibbonses had flown to Ontario, Canada — where the steel originated — in the months before the shipment was sent. Throughout the trial, all four defendants said they had no knowledge of the drugs hidden in the metal. Virgil said he had helped a Mr Ingham to order the steel and attended the Abbot’s Cliff area to oversee the delivery.

Corte Gibbons said Virgil had asked him days before the delivery about potentially storing or cutting steel, but no price or delivery date had been decided. His brother, meanwhile, said he was at home when Virgil arrived with the steel and asked if he could store the metal in his garage. Mr Jefferis said that he had been asked by a Mr Ingham if a container could be delivered to the property at Abbot’s Cliff and had voluntarily helped to unload the container.

Virgil was remanded into custody until April 1, when he and Anderson are set to appear at the Supreme Court.