TWO Ipswich drug dealers are today beginning a total of 14 years in jail after being caught in a police sting.Andrew Brown, a former amateur footballer who played for Needham Market and Grundisburgh, was sentenced to eight years after being convicted at Ipswich Crown Court.

TWO Ipswich drug dealers are today beginning a total of 14 years in jail after being caught in a police sting.

Andrew Brown, a former amateur footballer who played for Needham Market and Grundisburgh, was sentenced to eight years after being convicted at Ipswich Crown Court.

Despite denying the charges a jury found him guilty of attempting to possess the cocaine with intent to supply on March 27 last year and attempting to supply Class C drugs.

The 41-year-old electrician was caught after a police officer posed as a postman to deliver cocaine with a potential street value of £163,000 to his Middleton Close home.

His co-defendant and golfing pal Tony Knights, 45, of Dobbs Lane, Kesgrave, was jailed for six years after also being found guilty of attempting to possess Class A drugs with intent to supply.

The jury head Knights had previously admitted attempted possession of a controlled drug on the basis that he thought he was picking up a Class C drug and not cocaine.

During their trial the court heard Brown was sent a package from Peru containing cocaine.

The consignment was intercepted at Frankfurt airport by German customs officials and passed on to police officers in Suffolk.

The parcel was addressed to Brown and included his correct postcode, said Rupert Overbury, prosecuting.

Police officers arranged for the package to be examined and it was found to contain 476grammes of cocaine of 83 per cent purity.

Mr Overbury said the drugs, which were hidden in bottles of skin care products in a wash bag, could have been diluted to ten per cent purity to increase their value from £17,000 to £163,000.

Police removed the cocaine and a dummy package containing a tracking device was delivered to Brown's address by a policeman dressed up as a postman. Brown accepted delivery of the package and later the same day it was collected by Knights.

Knights was kept under surveillance and was followed to the Black Tiles pub at Martlesham. When he left the pub car park he was followed by a black Mercedes and the two vehicles drove to the Douglas Bader pub at Martlesham Heath where they parked next to each other.

Knights had then got into the Mercedes with the package and the car drove off with him in it.

Problems with the tracking device in the package resulted in the police surveillance operation being suspended until the following day when the three bottles in the wash bag were found hidden in undergrowth 600m away from Knights' home by police officers.