Three burglars have been jailed after stealing nearly £1m worth of the weight loss drug Mounjaro from a distribution site.

Mark Harding, 55, Robert Townsend, 59 and Peter Costello, 44, carried out the “highly organised” and “sophisticated” burglary at Phoenix Healthcare Distribution in St Albans, Hertfordshire, on 24 January this year.

Police said the three men had broken into the unit through an air-conditioning duct, with their actions captured on CCTV footage played to St Albans Crown Court.

Judge Jonathan Mann KC said: “I have no doubt in concluding that a great deal of money was made as an effect of the distribution of the Mounjaro.”

The haul of weight-loss drugs – worth a total of £944,544 – has still not been found.

Costello and Townsend, both from Sutton, and Harding from Feltham, in south-west London, were all charged with burglary after their arrest on 11 February.

Harding and Townsend also admitted to possession of criminal property after being found with thousands of pounds secreted away in their homes.

About £35,000 in cash was found in a picnic basket in Harding’s wardrobe, while £19,900 was found behind an extractor fan in Townsend’s home, the court heard.