Two men have been jailed for their roles in a conspiracy to import millions of pounds worth of cocaine on to the streets of East Sussex and London.

Rorey Rose and Solomon Cobourne were sentenced to 14 and 20 years respectively at Brighton Crown Court on Wednesday.

Sussex Police’s serious organised crime unit investigated the distribution of cocaine in the Bexhill area between 2011 and 2014 as part of Operation Bronzo.

Between June and September 2011, 15 identical FedEx packages were delivered to three separate addresses in Bexhill.

The last package, containing a kilo of cocaine valued at £178,000, was intercepted by police and a dummy package delivered in its place.

Police enquiries established the intended recipient for the intercepted package was Rose.

A police search of an address in Bexhill where Rose had been seen with another man recovered a quantity of crack cocaine.

Rose then disappeared from Bexhill and was circulated as wanted by Sussex Police.

In December 2013 he was stopped by police in London and arrested for unrelated road traffic offences before subsequently being arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to import cocaine.

His flat was searched and evidence from his mobiles identified relevant US contacts and text messages.

Authorities in the US confirmed one of contacts was a subject of a joint Drugs Enforcement Agency and Los Angeles law enforcement investigation into cocaine being shipped to the UK.

Cobourne was arrested last August on suspicion of conspiracy to import cocaine and linked to the FedEx importation into Bexhill in 2011.

He had also sent large cash transfers to the US contact via women he was associated with in London.

On Wednesday Judge Anthony Niblett accepted an inference from the prosecution that over the course of the conspiracy between February 2011 and June 2014, an estimated £28.5 million of cocaine in street value had been imported into the UK overall.

Rose admitted to conspiracy to import cocaine on November 3 but Cobourne, 35, of Ealing Road, Brentford, London, failed to attend a trial due to start on November 10 and the judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

He was convicted in his absence on November 24 and police are still hunting for him in Britain and the Caribbean.

Rose, 34, of Harlesden High Street, London, will be deported to his native Jamaica on his release.

DC Dom Marini from the serious organised crime unit said; "It became clear that we were dealing with international criminality which aimed to spread dangerous drugs in London and the Bexhill area, an avenue of supply that has now been completely stopped."