Two council officers who tried to smuggle drugs into the UK hidden inside a laser cutting machine and boxes of bananas have been jailed for 24 years.

Sundeep Singh Rai, 37, and Billy Hayre, 43, were part of a plot to import 30 kilos of cocaine and 30 kilos of amphetamine on a cargo plane from Mexico.

A court heard the pair had been working for Sandwell Council as housing officers but also belonged to a serious organised crime group on the side.

They were arrested after Border Force officials intercepted the large shipment of Class A drugs at Heathrow Airport on May 26 last year.

National Crime Agency (NCA) officers seized the haul but allowed the empty consignment to run through the border and monitored it.

Investigators watched the stash being collected from a cargo holding area at the airport by a white Mercedes van on June 8.

It was then driven to the Greet Green Industrial Estate in West Bromwich, West Mids., where it was met by Rai and Hayre.

The pair then unloaded the shipment into an industrial unit and took delivery of another consignment of drugs the following day.

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Rai, of West Bromwich, and Hayre, of Old Oscott, Birmingham, met a lorry at the industrial estate carrying a coverload of bananas.

As the men began unloading it, NCA and West Midlands Police officers, arrested them both.

More than nine kilos of cocaine was found hidden in a cardboard box was also found in Rai's car.

Around two kilos of methylmethcathinone – also known by the street name of Meow Meow - was discovered in the garage of Rai's home.

A property he rented in Wolverhampton was also searched where officers found 250 grams of heroin, 700 ecstasy tablets, a cash counting machine and a dealing list.

Rai and Hayre initially denied charges of conspiracy to supply class A drugs but changed their pleas to guilty just before their trial on February 7.

They were jailed for 12 years each at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday (25/8).

Sentencing, Judge Jonathan Gosling said their actions as "despicable" and described their version of events was "preposterous".

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NCA operations manager Chris Duplock said after the case: "Rai and Hayre were behind a sophisticated attempt to smuggle class A drugs from Mexico on to the streets of the UK.

"I have no doubt that had we not stopped them, they would have used this route repeatedly to bring in more drugs.

"Working with partners at home and abroad, we will do all we can to disrupt the supply of class A drugs which are inextricably linked to gang violence and real suffering across UK communities."