One of Britain's biggest crack cocaine barons was jailed for 25 years for running an international drugs operation through Gatwick.

Lincoln White, 39, was described by police as a "kingpin drug lord" and is thought to be the worst crack cocaine baron to be arrested in the United Kingdom.

White, a Jamaican national, was jailed alongside nine members of his multi-million-pound ring at Kingston Crown Court, London, yesterday.

Drug couriers who were given the task of transferring thousands of pounds abroad on his behalf were jailed for a total of more than 128 years.

The ten-week trial heard White headed a multi-million-pound cocaine network stretching from Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Mexico, the Antilles and Grenada to the UK.

Police estimate White's network may have pocketed as much as £170 million between September 1999 and March 2003.

Maxine Hemmings, 37, from Mitcham, Surrey, acted as a key link in the chain after applying for a job at Gatwick.

On entry to the airside area, all staff were required to pass their luggage through an X-ray machine but all that was needed to exit was a swipe card to operate a turnstile.

This allowed Hemmings to rendezvous with couriers returning from drug runs with liquid cocaine concealed as hair-care products in their baggage, collect the bags and simply walk out without detection.

For her part in the conspiracy, she was jailed for 12 years.