SIMON Proctor the managing director of a Suffolk business was due to appear in court today charged with smuggling drugs and cigarettes worth millions of pounds.

SIMON Proctor the managing director of a Suffolk business was due to appear in court today charged with smuggling drugs and cigarettes worth millions of pounds.

Proctor, MD of Deben Freight Ltd, based at Anglia Airpark in Rendlesham, is accused of conspiring to import two tonnes of cannabis with a street value of a street value of £7million into Britain. The 34-year-old businessman who lives in Narrow Way, Wenhaston, is also accused of conspiring to dodge £1.2 million in tax on seven million cigarettes.

Proctor was charged with the smuggling offences in April last year.

His arrest followed a seven-month operation headed by customs investigators in Ipswich and code-named Operation Facelift.

Proctor was charged as part of the operation after the cigarettes were allegedly smuggled through Britain's largest container port in Felixstowe in November, 2000.

Also due to appear at Chelmsford Crown Court today charged with the same offences was 43-year-old Victor Bellamy of Celeborn Street, Chelmsford.

Christopher Tarrant, 47, of Hall Lane, Blundeston, is charged solely with cigarette smuggling.