DETECTIVES are searching for a man who smuggled £20 million of cocaine from Los Angeles to Sussex.

Solomon Cobourne, 35, failed to turn up to his trial and sentencing and is now being hunted in Britain and the Caribbean.

He was convicted in his absence last year of conspiring to import the Class A drug and handed a 20 year sentence.

Four people have been convicted of laundering money from the operation, in which an estimated £20 million of cocaine was imported into the UK using a courier service.

Cash transfers of £259,342 were sent between London and Los Angeles to pay a man in the US who sourced and shipped the cocaine.

Fifteen identical packages were delivered by FedEx courier service to three separate addresses in Bexhill between June and September 2011.

Police intercepted the last package and found a kilo of cocaine at 90% purity and valued at £178,200 in potential street value.

Police discovered the intercepted package was meant for Rorey Rose the husband of one of the money-launderers.

The 34-year-old, of High Street, Harlseden, north London, has since been convicted of conspiring to import cocaine and was sentenced on January 28 to 14 years in jail.

Detective Inspector Gill Sole said: "This has been a complex investigation which has taken over three years and has involved close co-operation with law enforcement in the UK, the United States and Jamaica.

“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."

Cobourne of Ealing Road, Brentford, west London, is described as black, 6ft, of slim build, with a pierced left ear and a Jamaican accent.

Authorities believe he may be in the north-west London area where he has friends, but might have gone to Jamaica.