By Staff Reporter

Last updated 09:15, Saturday, 01 March 2008

THESE are the faces of two Nigerian men convicted of hiding cocaine in paintings and smuggling them into Cumbria.

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Two Nigerian males were today sentenced to a total of 12 years after

Stanley Chimezie and Francis Obasi were caught trying to bring in half a kilo of the Class A drug – with a street value of £39,000 – from South America.

They were sentenced to a total of 12 years behind bars at Carlisle Crown Court and their conviction has sparked a stark warning from police to those involved in peddling lethal drugs.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Duhig said: “This marks the culmination of a thorough investigation by Cumbria Police which illustrates that serious and organised crime will not be tolerated.

“Those responsible will be actively targeted and brought to justice.”

Security guard Chimezie, 23, of Hawes Street, Carlisle, was jailed for five years and three months on Thursday while Obasi, 29, of Abbeywood in London, was sentenced to six years and nine month.

Both pleaded guilty to conspiring to import cocaine.

They were apprehended during Operation Alston and arrested in July 2007 after police intercepted the paintings being delivered to a house in Chatsworth Square, Carlisle.

Judge Peter Hughes QC was told that Chimezie was offered £500 to receive the parcel.

The cocaine – of between 68 and 79 per cent purity – was concealed in the back of three paintings sent by express mail with Parcel Force.

The parcel, which came from Guyana, was intercepted at customs. It was delivered by a policeman on July 17 last year, addressed to a fictitious name at a flat in Chatsworth Square.

Chimezie was waiting at the flat and told the policeman that the occupant was out and he would sign for it. He was arrested about an hour later carrying the parcel in a carrier bag in the city centre.

He had met a man, referred to as ‘Bearsy’, in a pub in Manchester, who had asked him to receive the parcel.

Bearsy had told Chimezie, who entered the UK illegally, that if he did not receive the packages he would report him to the immigration service.

After Chimezie was arrested, his mobile had 62 missed calls from Obasi, who was saved in the phone memory as ‘Bearsy 2’.

The court was told Obasi had transferred £260 to a man in Guyana.

His defence claimed the cash was for his education.

Judge Hughes told Chimezie: “You set up that Carlisle end.

“Within minutes you were in touch with Obasi in London on the phone he had provided you with.”