AN international drug trafficker was today jailed for 10 years and nine months after admitting taking part in a plot to import £1million of ecstasy tablets.

Paul Hendra, 35, who has links to notorious East Lancashire narcotics gang The Firm, was sentenced at Preston Crown Court this morning.

The court previously heard more than 100,000 tablets were found when customs officers stopped a lorry on the south coast.

Hendra, 35, was later linked to the conspiracy during a conversation in a Burnley hotel. He was arrested in Amsterdam and extradited to the UK in January.

Police said he was a drug trafficker on an international level with close links to drugs gang The Firm and main operators Matthew Glover and Anthony Lockwood.

Glover and Lockwood, from East Lancashire, were part of an operation which, between December 1999 and February 2001, involved £1.6million of drugs.

Hendra, of Belgium, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import Class A drugs between January 1, 1999 and November 6, 1999.

In passing sentence, Judge Edward Slinger said: "People involved in drug dealing at all levels know that if caught a lengthy sentence will follow.

"The damage now being inflicted on society worldwide is incalculable to individuals whose lives are ruined by dependency, society ruined by crime to finance that dependency, and families ruined with individuals and children injured and killed when caught up in the violence of drug-related gang warfare.

"You were a major player in this carefully planned transaction. And the sentence of this court is for you to go to prison for 10 years, nine months."

A spokesman for the National Crime Squad said: "Hendra was a major drugs trafficker on an international level who was closely linked to Matthew Glover and The Firm."

Collingwood Thompson, QC, prosecuting, told the court Hendra was arrested after a probe was put in a Burnley hotel room and the conversations recorded talk of the failed importation at Harwich.

Andrew Robertson QC defending said Hendra accepted he was involved in the financing of the importation but he was not the organiser.

Collingwood Thompson, QC, prosecuting told the court how on November 4, 1999 the lorry driven by Wilhelmus Tunker was stopped at Harwich. Documents stated that the vehicle contained 200 flower boxes, but the boxes were empty.

The load was emptied and behind a roller shutter were two boxes of clear plastic bags, containing 100,700 ecstasy tablets. The pure weight of ecstasy was 4.07 KG and they had a street value of just over £1 million.

Mr Thompson said Tunker agreed to co-operate and drove the lorry to its rendezvous. He was later jailed for five years.

Among pieces of paper in Tunker's wallet was one with a K telephone number which turned out to be that of Hendra's mother's.

The prosecution said customs officers did not have enough evidence to link Hendra to the importation, but that position changed in the summer of 2000.

The National Crime Squad had been observing Glover who was suspected to be a major supplier of drugs in the North West.

Hendra came to the UK in 2000 and he associated with Mr Glover.

A resident abroad, he was arrested in April 2003 and after he contested extradition proceedings, he returned to this country on January 23 2004.

Andrew Robertson QC defending said Hendra accepted he was involved in the financing of the importation but he was not the organiser.