A drugs baron with an eye for fine art has been ordered to hand over almost £2 million or face having his sentence extended.

David Telli, from Littlehampton, was jailed in 1996 after pleading guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court to heroin smuggling.

Police believe the drug boss made millions of pounds importing the Class A substances before he was brought to justice.

Now Telli, who is in his 60s, has been ordered to pay the Government £1.9 million of profit he made from his crimes.

Much of his drugs income went on valuable ancient artefacts, including a 2,000-year-old statue of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine.

That statue has been seized by officials from the Turkish Government who said it was a stolen antiquity.

Telli tried to use the confiscation of the statue, which was insured for £2.2m, as reason for not handing over any extra money, claiming he had none left.

Judges at the Court of Appeal in London didn't believe him and ordered Telli to hand over more assets or face a further five and a half years in prison.

The court was told the bronze, life-size statue was described by Phillips the auctioneers as an "exceptional piece" with "little comparison on the open market within the last 20 years". In 1996, the British Museum said it could be worth £1.5m.

The statue was kept in a bonded warehouse in Switzerland before being taken back to Turkey, and although Telli claimed to have been no more than a "broker" for any sale it was involved in, he was held to be the "beneficial owner" and it was included as part of his assets.

After Telli, who lived at Westmead in East Preston, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in 1996 he was sentenced to 25 years although this was reduced to 22 years on appeal.

His benefit from drug smuggling was said to be £6 million and he was ordered to pay £3,458,806 to the authorities.

The outstanding balance is now £1.9 million and Telli asked the Court of Appeal to cancel the rest of the order saying he had no more assets to sell.

Lord Justice Moses, sitting with Lord Justice Ward and Lord Justice Moore-Bick, dismissed Telli's application and said customs officers believed he had a number of "hidden"

assets "either in the United Kingdom or abroad" which had still not been identified.

"That the statue of Dionysus is no longer available for realisation does not demonstrate that the current value of his realisable assets is inadequate to meet the outstanding balance of £1.9 million," concluded the judge.

He added that, based on information given by one of Telli's co-conspirators, he was responsible for collecting between £2.7m and £7m from heroin sales within the UK and sending the money to Turkey as well as bank accounts in Switzerland, Germany and the US.