AN INTERNATIONAL drugs trafficker whose bid to flood East Lancashire with tens of thousands of ecstasy tablets has ended in jail.

Detectives who spent 18 months bringing Paul Patrick Hendra, 35, to justice today heralded his conviction and the ten years and nine months sentence handed out.

Hendra, who had links to notorious East Lancashire drugs gang The Firm, pleaded guilty to taking part in a plot to import 100,000 of ecstasy tablets, worth £1million.

Police said large amounts of the drugs would have probably ended up on the streets of Lancashire and Yorkshire,The Firm's main territory.

The Firm's operation unravelled after more than 100,000 tablets were seized by customs in a lorry on the south coast.

Hendra, 35, was later linked to the conspiracy during a conversation taped by police in a Burnley hotel. He was arrested in Amsterdam and extradited to the UK in January.

Police said he was a drug trafficker on an international level with close links to drugs gang The Firm and main operators Matthew Glover and Anthony Lockwood.

Glover and Lockwood were part of an operation which, between December 1999 and February 2001, involved £1.6million of drugs.

Glover, of Foxstones Lane, Cliviger, was jailed for 25 years while his right-hand man, Anthony Lockwood, of Middop, near Clitheroe, was jailed for 17 years.

The operation set up to catch The Firm was called Operation Norfolk, run by the National Crime Squad.

Hendra, of Belgium, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import Class A drugs between January 1, 1999 and November 6, 1999 at Preston Crown Court yesterday.

Detectives from the Nation Crime Squad today revealed how their hunt for Hendra began with the issuing of a warrant for his arrest at Burnley Magistrates in late 2002

He was then arrested at Schipol Airport, near Amsterdam, in April 2003.

He had based himself in Antwerp, and fought extradition proceedings until January this year, when he finally arrived in the UK.

Detective Inspector Justin Srivastava of the National Crime Squad said: "Today's conviction is testament to the hardwork, dedication and professionalism of the Operation Norfolk team. The importation of controlled drugs will not be tolerated at any level."