In the UK, it was registered as VISION CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES (TEMPLE OF PRAISE) , Company number 09576201, a Private Limited Company by guarantee without share capital and had an exemption from using the word 'Limited'. It was formed in May 2015 and dissolved in November 2016 by striking off in the absence of the filing of required documents including the Persons of Significant Control statements. Its nature of business and SIC code were marked as "to be provided on [the] next annual return." Its registered office was 88 Soho Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, United Kingdom, B21 9DP and the only two officers listed were Lisa and Grace Black of 522b, Birchfield Road, Birchfield, United Kingdom, ROAD B20 3JE (as shewn at Companies House).

It has to be said that there is no obvious link between this company and the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, Vision Ministries, charity number SC035235.

The presence of Vision Christian Ministries in the UK appears to be limited to 36A Windmill Lane, Birmingham. But that's far from reliable information: its Facebook page was last updated in 2013, the address has no postcode and the only telephone number given is a mobile. While today that is common for small businesses, in 2013, a landline was the norm. Furthermore, the only address it published was at yahoo.co.uk and the webdomain quoted, go2vcm.org does not today exist Google's streetview shows 36A Windmill Lane here: https://www.google.com/maps/@52.490379,-1.9576713,3a,75y,197.92h,90t/da… .. but says it's in Raglan Road, Smethwick.

All of this is interesting background to a case prosecuted by the National Crime Agency in the UK which says that Dalton Anderson, 51, Alvin Russell, 46, and Sinclair Tucker, 65, had used Birmingham-based Vision Christian Ministries (VCM) to conceal the smuggling of the drugs – which were worth up to GBP2 million if sold in the UK.

The cannabis was trafficked from Jamaica to the UK, via Birmingham Airport, and had been packed into sealed tins of Calaloo and Ackee fruit.

It was shipped in three separate consignments addressed to Vision Christian Ministries, for collection at the airport between March and May 2017. The shipments were all seized by Border Force.

The trio were arrested at the airport on 23 May of that year, while inspecting the third consignment which had just arrived. NCA investigators established that they had organised the importations and collected the drugs from the airport. Anderson and Russell also spent some time in Jamaica when the importations were made, handling money and providing shipping documentation to Vision Christian Ministries via Tucker. The NCA says that Vision Christian Ministries has since been dissolved.

Anderson was convicted at Birmingham Crown Court on 29 November last year, with the other two found guilty on 30 November following a five-week trial.

At the same court today (17 July) Anderson was jailed for nine years imprisonment, Russell to five years and Tucker to two years (suspended).