SEVEN men have been jailed for a total of twenty-five-and-a-half years after a plot to smuggle drugs into Britain from Europe was smashed in a dramatic Suffolk armed raid.

By Lisa Baxter

SEVEN men have been jailed for a total of twenty-five-and-a-half years after a plot to smuggle drugs into Britain from Europe was smashed in a dramatic Suffolk armed raid.

Today the Evening Star can exclusively reveal the background to a two-month drugs trial resulting from one of the biggest and most colourful customs operations Suffolk has ever seen.

As an eighth smuggler waits to learn his fate, we reveal the background to a court case involving guns, drugs, a gangland bodybuilder and an alluring lapdancer – which culminated on Bawdsey beach.

Full story and background later.