Customs officers at Gatwick seized cocaine worth £210,000 as two couriers tried to smuggle it into Britain, a court heard.

The drug was concealed inside the handles of specially adapted suitcases and in the bodies of two men on a flight from the Caribbean.

A total of 2.5kg of pure cocaine was uncovered after Joseph Compton and Raymond Garrick tried to walk through the green channel at the South Terminal.

Tina Davey, prosecuting, said both men had also swallowed packets of the drug and hidden more in their underclothes.

Compton, 42, and Garrick, 51, earlier admitted drug trafficking charges and appeared at Hove Crown Court for sentence yesterday.

They were caught after flying in from Grenada together on September 27, last year.

When questioned, Compton admitted three further offences of smuggling a substance he believed to be cocaine into Britain during the previous 12 months.

John Traversi, defending, said Compton, of Corron Road, Birmingham, had been injured and threatened he would be killed if he did not smuggle the drugs.

Abbas Lakha, defending Garrik, of Unett Street, Smethwick, said his client was a drug user who had also been threatened with death or violence if he did not act as a courier.

Jailing Compton for nine years and Garrick for seven years, Judge Austin Issard-Davies said they were both responsible for helping to bring death and misery to Britain.

He said: "Drugs like this cause misery and death to the people who use them and for everyone else they create a climate of fear and crime with which those who live in our cities are forced to live.

"Compton, the human misery for which you are directly responsible will be great indeed.

"Garrick, you became involved through your own use of drugs and succumbed to pressure from others to do this."