A jet captain who smuggled drugs worth more than £164,000 through Gatwick Airport has been jailed for 12 years.

Hodge Robert Inaku Ogede, 53, of Shepherd's Close, Crawley, was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court yesterday.

Ogede was a pilot for DAS cargo airlines and smuggled suitcases filled with heroin from Kenya and cannabis from Amsterdam to men waiting on the ground in Crawley.

Customs assistant chief investigation officer Nick Baker said: "This is an excellent result.

"Ogede was a captain of a cargo plane who abused his position of trust to evade the normal Customs controls at the airport."

Ogede was arrested in February following an undercover operation by Customs officers.

On January 18 officers watched him land at Gatwick Airport piloting a DAS flight from Amsterdam.

They followed him as he met another man, later revealed to be Mohammad Fofana, 35, from north London, at Crawley railway station.

Ogede gave Fofana a trolley case, which he then took by train to London Victoria.

Fofana was later arrested in Victoria and a suitcase containing 26kg of cannabis with a value of about £81,000 was seized.

In February Fofana, a Kenyan national, pleaded guilty to being involved in the importation of a controlled drug and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Instead of seizing Ogede immediately, Customs officers continued to monitor him.

On February 13 they followed him after he arrived at Gatwick from Kenya. He was followed to a car park in Crawley and was seen handing over a bag to a contact.

Police intercepted the man on the M25 on behalf of Customs and Excise and discovered a bag containing 2kg of heroin with a street value of about £83,000. The man was acquitted yesterday at Guildford Crown Court.

Customs officers moved in on Ogede on February 13, when they raided a flat and arrested him.

He was charged with being knowingly concerned in the importation of a controlled drug.