A Bradford man, who played a "crucial" role in a drugs gang responsible for the biggest-ever crack cocaine seizure in Britain, was behind bars today.

Phillip Hearsum, 51, who ran a landscaping business, was jailed for nine years when he was sentenced yesterday with drugs "kingpin" Lincoln White and ten members of his gang.

Hearsum, of Wensleydale Road, Thornbury, was one of a team of couriers, or 'mules', recruited to bring in drugs to Britain from overseas.

They were attracted by the lure of a two weeks' free holiday in the sun and a £5,000 pay off to act as drug mules.

But Hearsum was trapped as he tried to smuggle three kilos of cocaine through Gatwick Airport in his suitcase after flying in from Cancun, Mexico.

Hearsum was one of four people who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import Class A drugs. They were all jailed for between eight and nine years.

Six others were convicted of conspiracy to import Class A drugs and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs between January 1999 and March last year after a high-security ten-week trial.

They included 39 year-old Jamaican Lincoln White, described by detectives as the "kingpin drug lord," who received a 25-year jail sentence for running the "evil" international drugs operation.

White, who divided his time between Montego Bay and a flat in London, was said to be the biggest and worst crack cocaine baron ever arrested in the UK.

His network, which had tentacles stretching from Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Mexico, the Antilles and Grenada to the UK, pocketed an estimated £170m between September 1999 and March 2003.

The ten gang members, including White's trusted lieutenant, former lovers and drug couriers like Hearsum, were jailed by Judge Edward Southwell for a total of 128 years.

Among those sentenced was Michael Small, 37, of Huddersfield, who was imprisoned for 13 years. He was described as the "Huddersfield link" in the conspiracy, which stretched from London to the north of England.

Hearsum was jailed for making two trips abroad on drug runs for White's network.

The gang was trapped after an intelligence-led investigation by the National Crime Squad, dubbed Operation Godwit, during which a holdall was recovered containing 10.9 kilograms of crack cocaine with a street value of more than £1million.

Courier Hearsum was picked up on his way back from Mexico on February 26, 2003, as part of the investigation, which included undercover surveillance.

A spokeswoman for the NCS said: "We don't know when Hearsum was recruited but we believe he had done previous runs.

"We don't know how he was recruited but the gang had tentacles up and down the country and lieutenants recruiting for them.

"It appears to have been quite an easy thing for them to recruit people by word of mouth. It was easy money, they were paid £5,000 per trip on average, plus a two weeks', all-expenses paid holiday in the sun. It was quite lucrative for the couriers."

She said Hearsum, who was older than the other members of the gang, ran his own landscape business and had not been involved in drugs previously.

She added the role of the couriers was vital to the gang's operation.

"They needed people to go out and get the drugs and bring them back into the country. Without them the operation couldn't have existed. Hearsum and the other couriers were crucial parts in the bigger picture."

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Ryan, of the NCS, said: "The sentences send a clear message that whatever part you play in the drug chain, you will be punished.

"This case demonstrated what role each individual had to play in this vile trade - from couriers being recruited in towns and cities up and down the country and dispatched to import the cocaine from Latin America to the end product."

The judge told White: "You were the initiator and organiser of this operation, you were its brains.

"You played for the highest stakes with what I consider to be breathtaking arrogance."