A 30-year-old man has been sent to prison for eight and a half years for attempting to smuggle 6.5 kilos of cocaine into the UK through Dover.

The drugs had an estimated street value of £250,000.

On April 8 officers at the Eastern Docks intercepted a Belgian-registered box-type van.

When questioned, Belgian Ali Kherchachi stated he had furniture in his load. Officers conducted a search of the vehicle and found a stereo speaker which contained nine brown tape wrapped packages and four further packages, two in a video recorder and two within a biscuit tin.