A WOMAN who tried to smuggle cocaine with a street value of around £900,000 into the UK has been jailed for five years.

Jacqueline Millar, of Livingstone Road, Blackburn was arrested by Border Force officers after she arrived on a flight from Toronto in September with around five kilogrammes of the drug in her suitcases. The case was handed over to an investigation team from the National Crime Agency’s Border Policing Command.

Forensic tests were carried out and the cocaine was found to be between 65 and 70 per cent pure.

If cut and sold on the streets, it would have had a value of around £900,000.

Millar, 50, pleaded guilty to importing a class A drug at an earlier hearing at Croydon Crown Court.

And Millar was sentenced at the same court yesterday.

Peter Avery, from the NCA’s Border Policing Command, said: “This was a substantial amount of a class A drug destined for the streets of the UK.

“Working with our Border Force colleagues we are determined to tackle those responsible for trafficking illegal drugs into the UK and causing terrible damage to our communities.”

The NCA is a new law enforcement agency w tasked with leading the UK’s fight to cut serious and organised crime.

The Border Policing Command has more than 300 officers at major ports, investigating detections of drugs, firearms, cash and other non-fiscal crime made by Border Force.

The BPC also has an extensive overseas network of around 120 officers in 40 locations around the world.

Carole Upshall, director of Border Force South, said: “We welcome the sentence handed out in this case.” Referring to the fight against drugs she added“Working with our colleagues at the NCA, Border Force is at the forefront of the fight to stop drugs entering the UK.”