Customs chiefs today claimed they were winning the war against Jamaican smugglers using Gatwick Airport to flood Britain with cocaine.

They said new detection methods had cut the number of drug mules getting through on the notorious smuggling route by one third over the last four months.

At the same time, seizures of cocaine had gone up 12-fold in Jamaica - while dropping by two thirds in the United Kingdom over the same period.

The Sussex airport, along with Heathrow, is the main route into the UK for crack and cocaine from Jamaica. It had been estimated up to 30kg (66lb) of cocaine was being smuggled on every flight by passengers who had swallowed plastic bags or condoms.

This led to the Government signing a joint agreement with the Jamaican authorities earlier this year to try and stem the tide of the deadly drug.

Dealers in Jamaica are thought to be happy to flood aircraft with couriers on the assumption that even if some are caught others will evade detection.