A MAN has been jailed for 26 years for importing cocaine and cannabis.

Robert Flook, who had a business based in Belvedere, was sentenced to 26 years for conspiracy to supply 150 kilos of class A drugs and 13 years for conspiracy to supply eight tonnes of class C drugs, to be served concurrently, at Blackfriars Crown Court on Friday.

The 46-year-old was one of the key organisers of a network that imported the drugs from South Africa.

He was arrested with another man after an investigation by the Metropolitan Police's Special Projects team and South African Organised Crime law enforcement agencies.

Eight tonnes of cannabis, with a street value of £28 million was seized at Felixstowe port in September 2006, and 150 kilos of cocaine, with a street value of £10.5million, was seized in South Africa the following October.

He used his business, Playaway Events Ltd, based at various addresses in south London and Belvedere, to import cannabis hidden in garden furniture.

His other business, P&G Mirrors UK, based in Brixham and Newton Abbott, served as the front to import the cocaine.

It is believed the network started importing drugs in 2001 and in that time imported 11 containers of cannabis and four containers of cocaine with an estimated combined street value of about £350million.

Three British men were arrested in South Africa at the same time as Flooks.

Two were found guilty of two counts of dealing narcotic substances and received 20 years for the cocaine and 20 years for the cannabis. The other man was acquitted.

Det Insp Craig Turner said: "These convictions are the result of months of work between law enforcement agencies in the UK and South Africa, and the sentence represents the substantial damage these drugs would have caused."