TWO former Gwent men were sent to prison today for a total of 44 years for drug trafficking worth millions of pounds.

Michael Oliver, 64, formerly of Cae Brynton Road, Newport, was sentenced to 23 years, and Christopher Hill, 62, formerly of Glenroy Court, Magor, was sentenced to 21 years.

They, together with Jeffrey Miller, 54, of Conybeare Road, Cardiff, were jailed at Croydon Crown Court today after being convicted of importing more than 270kgs of class A and class B drugs.

Oliver and Hill oversaw three separate importations from the Netherlands which included 16kg of cocaine hidden in a shipment of children's shoes and 50kgs of cannabis concealed in boxes of children's football tracksuits.

The third load had 57.7kg of heroin, 32.5kg of cocaine and 117.2kg of amphetamine imported in a consignment of vacuum cleaners and photocopier paper.

Oliver and Hill used a complex system of ghost companies across Europe to conceal the drugs under a veil of seemingly legitimate trading activities.

They employed Miller, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison, to manage warehouses in the Netherlands where drugs were hidden within shipments of low-value goods before being transported to the UK.

At the time of the drug imports, Hill and Oliver were on bail in relation to a £12 million excise duty fraud investigation and were jailed for six-and-a-half years and ten years respectively for their parts in that conspiracy.