Kevin Jennings
Kevin Jennings has been jailed for his role to import £4bn worth of cocaine into the UK

Liverpool drug gangster Kevin Jennings has been jailed for 23 years for his role in a huge cocaine ring that masterminded flooding the UK with £4bn worth of the Class A drug.

The 50-year-old former street trader was responsible for transporting up to 40 tonnes of drugs from South and Central America.

He became the 25th member of an international cartel to be imprisoned after originally pleading not guilty to conspiring to ship drugs into the UK throughout 2008 and 2009.

Earlier this month a jury took just 30 minutes to convict him of conspiracy to import Class A drugs, the Liverpool Echo reported.

The fugitive had been in hiding with other gang members in the Netherlands but was caught while walking his dog in June.

His sentencing came as Merseyside's most wanted man Paul Scott was detained at East Winch Airfield in a Cessna light aircraft on Thursday [19 December] trying to sneak back into the country.

Scott, 32, was wanted over the murder of Francis Brennan, who was implicated in the £4bn cocaine ring and whose body was found washed up on a Spanish beach.

He was believed to be the final member of the gang still at large after 24 co-conspirators were sentenced to a combined 250 years in jail following trials in 2011.