FIVE middle-aged men accused of running a multi- million pound cannabis smuggling operation have been cleared after it was claimed they were more 'Dad's Army' than 'Boyz in the Hood'. Property dealer Michael Lawson, 59, who has a home in East Looe, and his four co-defendants were said to a have smuggled a tonne of pot in special compartments hidden in the middle of rolls of carpet. But they insisted they thought they were bringing tobacco into the country and were duped by another man. During the trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court, defence counsel David Whitehouse QC told the jury to study the middle-aged defendants. 'Not one of them (the defendants) has a conviction for drugs – they are not Boyz in the Hood, are they? 'They are Dad's Army. They are the sort of blokes who would be prepared to smuggle tobacco into this country.' Lawson told the jury he planned to throw the £5 million consignment of drugs into a river after he was shocked to find the compartments contained cannabis and not choice hand-rolling tobacco. The gang were rounded up after a raid on a warehouse in Basildon, Essex, in October 2001 following a huge surveillance operation by the National Crime Squad (NCS). The NCS operation began in 1999 after detectives received information that Lawson was living beyond his means. Lawson had recruited a driver who carried out ten 'dry-runs' taking carpets to the continent, sometimes using those with the false compartments. The gang started building the compartments at the Essex warehouse in May 2001 and the shipment of cannabis was brought into the country in a lorry in October of that year. The drugs were driven from Ghent in Belgium to the premises watched by NCS officers who pounced when they were delivered. Detectives found 912 kilos of cannabis at Orion Road and the prosecution claimed all of the men were caught red-handed. But the jury cleared Lawson, Lee Adderson, 47, Darren Roberts, 45, Derek Johnson, 54, and Donald Jones, 51. Johnson had told the court: 'I'm not duping anybody – I was duped. I've never been in trouble in my life. I'm not an everyday criminal.' Asked what Lawson's plan had been he said: 'To make some money from the importation of tobacco.' Lawson, who also has an address at 154 St John's Hill, Sevenoaks, Kent, Adderson, of 7 High Silver, Ingatestone, Essex, Roberts, of 2 Horton  Towers, St Mary's Cray, Orpington, Kent, Johnson, of 102 Barnmead, Hayward's Heath, West Sussex, and Jones, of 27 Lorne Gardens, Wanstead, east London, all denied conspiracy to smuggle cannabis between May 1 and October 13, 2001.