A field in Yalding near Maidstone was one of the rural drop sites used by a gang to smuggle drugs into the UK.

The Liverpool-based gang was run by Lance Kennedy, who admitted in Liverpool Crown Court to being the mastermind behind a plot to fly in half a tonne of the Class A drug cocaine by helicopter.

The National Crime Agency said gang members would rent holiday homes or cottages in Kent beneath the flight-paths of the Dutch helicopters which would typically register flight plans between the Belgian town of Antwerp and airfields in southern England.

But the helicopter would land on route, quickly unload holdalls of drugs to waiting gang members, before taking off and resuming its flight. The gang then took the drugs by road back to Liverpool for distribution. On at least one occasion, the gang members spread a bed-sheet on the ground to indicate the landing point to the pilot.

The NCA were tracking one flight when it disappeared from the radar over Yalding.

Police subsequently were involved in a 100mph chase with a vehicle along the M26 before it was stopped and the driver arrested. Inside the BMW were holdalls containing 43kg of cocaine, 60kg of heroin and 30 encrypted phones. The drugs were estimated to be worth £12m.

Other drops, there were six in total, were said to have taken place at the village of Eastling near Faversham, and at Dover, where they rented Gun Emplacement Cottage, a holiday home belonging to the actress Miriam Margolyes, who played Professor Sprout in Harry Potter. Miss Margolyes was completely unaware of their criminal plans.

Kennedy, 32, who was said to have run the operation from his home in Barcelona, was jailed for 18 years, and 11 other members of the gang were jailed on Friday with sentences ranging from four years to 14 years.

Kennedy and one of the gang members Robbie Stewart, 38, were not in the UK, when police arrested most of the gang last October.

However, in February they were arrested by border police as they tried to cross from Moldova into Ukraine and were subsequently extradited to the UK.

Cleveland Police’s Detective Sergeant John Fitzpatrick, who led on Operation Spoonbill, said: “This was a complex enquiry and the sentences reflect the scale of the conspiracy which was uncovered by our Organised Crime Unit.

“These individuals took lengthy and complex steps to mask their criminality, which was controlled from abroad."

“The volume of Class A drugs attributable to this group within the conspiracy period is huge and the damage caused locally and nationally by this evil trade is unquantifiable.

“We will now focus our attentions on these individuals to recoup their ill-gotten gains and continue to target their customer-base who peddle in misery.”

To read more of our in depth coverage of all of the major trials coming out of crown and magistrates' courts across the county, click here.

To get the latest updates in ongoing cases, police appeals and criminals put behind bars, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Weald