A smuggler who imported cocaine worth £190,000 into Ramsgate has been jailed for seven years.

Mete Gashi, 30, of Kenton Road, Harrow appeared for sentence at Canterbury Crown Court having admitted importing 1.58kg of the drug, hidden in the rear bumper of a Vauxhall Vectra he drove into Ramsgate with another man on September 27.

He told customs he’d been to Belgium but couldn’t say where he and his passenger had stayed.

He denied knowing about the drugs saying they’d gone to Brussels in his van, which later broke down, and were asked by a man they met there to drive the car back.

Oliver Saxby, for Gashi, asked for credit for his plea and stressed he was only a courier.

He said money played a part but his involvement was entirely out of character.

Jailing Gashi, Judge Nigel van der Bijl said it was a serious offence but he accepted Gashi was a driver and not an organiser.

He ordered 412 days served on remand count towards Gashi’s sentence.