A man who plotted to smuggle £300,000 of cocaine into the UK hidden in sportswear imported from Brazil has been jailed for nine and a half years.

Malachi Ezeilo rented a safe house in Bradford so he could take delivery of the Drugs stashed in shin pads.

The judge branded him a “crucial and vital player” in the conspiracy.

Customs officials at Stansted Airport seized the suspect parcel and substituted shredded paper for the 40 concealed bags of cocaine, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Ezeilo, 41, was arrested after taking delivery of the parcel at his bedsit in Farcliffe Road, Manningham, on March 12.

An undercover police officer posed as a courier to hand over the dummy package.

Ezeilo, a Nigerian who came to the UK in 2007 on a false passport, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the illegal importation of drugs.

He also admitted possessing a £4,000 stash of cannabis with intent to supply it.

Prosecutor Giles Bridge said Ezeilo rented the bedsit in the name Tony Adams on March 2.

But the plot was foiled when officers in the UK Border Agency seized the package of wrist straps and shin pads.

Mr Bridge said it contained almost two kilograms of cocaine of 85 per cent purity which would have made almost 8,000 individual deals worth £317,920.

Police swooped on the bedsit in a joint operation by Bradford District Drugs Team and the Crime Division. They found two blocks of cannabis hidden in the kitchen.

Mr Bridge said Ezeilo would be deported after serving his sentence.

His barrister, Yunus Valli, said Ezeilo fled Nigeria after serving in the military. He left his wife and children and a business selling vehicle parts. He worked as a forklift driver in London before coming to Bradford. Ezeilo facilitated the drugs importation for others higher up the chain.

But Judge Jonathan Rose told Ezeilo: “You have not been used, you have been a willing, free, voluntary, participant in this enterprise.”

Ezeilo was jailed for eight years for importing cocaine and an extra 18 months for looking after the cannabis stash.

Sergeant Steven Banks, of the Bradford District Drugs Team, said: “It involved wide-ranging inquiries on an international level with a considerable amount of hard work and dedication from all the officers involved.

“We will continue to clamp down on those who sell misery in our communities and turn the fear of crime on those involved.”