A MAN been jailed for over ten years for his part in a bid to smuggle 20 kilogrammes of cocaine into the UK from a cruise ship at Southampton.

Claudie Anglin, 28, was arrested at the port on 19 October 2008 as he prepared to meet four drug smugglers. They were each found with cocaine strapped to their bodies as they disembarked the cruise ship Arcadia which had sailed from the Caribbean.

The four couriers – Camille Dupee, Briony Dyce, Calvin Hylton and Natalie Quinn – were each jailed for ten years and six months after pleading guilty at Southampton Crown Court in December 2008.

They had picked up the cocaine – worth £1.7m – in St Lucia and were stopped in the Customs channels at Southampton Mayflower Cruise Terminal as they attempted to bring the drugs into the country.

Anglin, from Rubery, Birmingham, was waiting to meet the four when he was arrested in a car park opposite the Arcadia.

He was charged with drug smuggling on 3 July 2009 and admitted the offence before being sentenced at Southampton Crown Court today to ten years and six months.