AN East Lancashire man is in custody for his alleged part in a Spanish drug smuggling plot in which cocaine was stashed inside fuel tanks of trucks and cars.

Vaughan Chapman, 44, from Blackburn, was part of a five-strong gang alleged to have hid 3.1 kilos of high purity Class A drugs in ‘sophisticated’ hidden compartments fitted to their vehicles.

The drugs, worth an estimated £130,000, were being transported from Spain to the UK.

The seizure was made by Spanish National Police in the Vega Baja area on the Costa Blanca, just south of Alicante.

Officers said they found cars with false bottoms and specially adapted compartments in the petrol tanks.

As the five men, aged between 39 and 62, were arrested, six properties were searched.

The raids uncovered a fake gun and police seized four computers, three mobile phones, two cameras, two GPS devices, a precision scale and numerous tools and instruments believed to be for the manipulation of the drugs.

Spanish police also recovered 1,200 euros and £1,200.

According to reports in the Costa Blanca press, the detainees include the alleged ringleader, the truck driver and two men who were making preparations to smuggle the drugs to Britain.

As well as Chapman, Mark Russell, 56, from Newton, Christopher Laycock, from Oldham, Bernard O’Malley, 62, and Thomas Staunton, 42, were remanded in custody after a closed door appearance before an investigating judge.