A mini cab driver was not part of a large scale conspiracy to flood the UK with “astronomic” amounts of heroin and cocaine, a jury has decided.

Richard Middleton was alleged to have been a “foot soldier” and vital cog in the multimillion pound operation run like a commercial corporation and trusted by the hierarchy to know the contents of packages being delivered.

One seized by police from the back of another taxi on Battersea Bridge in London contained four kilos of cocaine and three kilos of heroin, both of high purity.

A retrial at Maidstone Crown Court was told Middleton, of Ruskin Grove, Dartford, was seen to hand over a cardboard box to a man in Highlands Hill, Swanley, in July 2013.

Prosecutor Richard Barton said they arrived in convoy with Middleton driving his Vauxhall Zafira cab.

A package was handed over and they left. Officers followed the other taxi to Battersea Bridge, where the drugs were seized.

But Middleton, 36, denied two charges of conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine between May and July 2013 and was acquitted today.

At his previous trial the jury was unable to reach verdicts. Others, including the “big bosses”, had been convicted.