A KENDAL drug smuggler has been jailed for 22 years for his part in bringing £14m of cocaine to the UK.

Peter Hannigan, 49, was convicted of conspiracy to import Class A Drugs at Manchester Crown Court, after he and eight other men were caught importing 105 kilograms of the illegal stimulant into the country.

Hannigan, of Howe Gardens, was described by police as ‘second in command’ of a gang, believed to be in charge of transport for a wider network supplying the whole country.

Cumbria Police led the investigation which saw Hannigan and the rest of the gang caught on May 3, 2008.

At the time, Hannigan was on parole after serving half of a 12 year sentence for carrying out a similar crime.

Working with HM Revenue and Customs officers, police seized the drugs from two vehicles that had arrived at Harwich docks from Germany.

The drugs were transported inside furniture, using a legitimate transport company, as the men masqueraded as a military family moving back to the UK.

DCI Jeff Ashton, of Cumbria Police, who led the investigation – codenamed Operation Addington – said: “Hannigan was second in command in this operation, which we believe was the transport arm of a wider network of drug dealers.

“He was responsible for the tracking device used by the gang to track the drugs. He met the organiser, Mark Neville in jail and that is where we believe a lot of the gang first met.

“There is no doubt that some of the drugs would have ended up in south Cumbria, so it is a fantastic result for the police and the communities in South Lakeland.

“When our investigations began, this group was ident-ified as the number one target for Cumbria Constab-ulary’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit.

“The defendants that were found guilty today had connections to the higher echelons of the drug traffick-ing world, with national and international connections, and the impact of these convictions cannot be under-estimated.”

One resident of Howe Gardens, Jamie Bell, said: “I didn’t know he (Hannigan) lived here, but it is worrying to think that this sort of thing is being planned on your doorstep.”

Other men convicted with Hannigan were Mark Neville, 41 of HMP Kirkham, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison; Mark McGovern, 47 of Blackpool and Phiilip Grange, 54, of Nottingham, who both got 18 years; and Darren Morris of Kirkham and Simon Finlay of Preston, who each were given 13 years.

Henry Mooney of Burnley was acquitted and John Morris of Kirkham is to be sentenced at a later date.