Three men who were found guilty of transporting a kilogramme worth of cocaine dealers have been jailed.

Nahkell Gordon,32, formely of Eastwood Close, London, Marcus Mawire, 24, of Milton Road, Sittingbourne and Dean Mulholland, 28, of Limes Avenue, Swindon were sentenced to 26 years in jail today.

The jury at Bristol Crown Court spent almost four hours deciding whether the trio were guilty after a four-week trial.

This morning, Judge Michael Longman sentenced Mawire to eight-and-a-half years, Mulholland to eight-and-a-half years and Nahkell Gordon to nine years.

Two other men, Harry Byart, 25, of Merlin Close, Waltham Abbey and Edson Monteiro de Resende, 34, now of Pasteur Drive, Swindon were cleared of their charges on Tuesday, August 13.

All five suspects have been charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine from London to Swindon on the evening of September 7, 2017.

Undercover police officers had followed taxi driver de Resende on the M4 from Swindon to pick up the drugs in London.

The cabbie then left and began driving on the M4 by 11.10pm until undercover officers followed the taxi driver where he abruptly pulled over into the hard shoulder.

De Resende got out to check the bagged package he had been told was medication for Mawire’s mother.

Recognising it as cocaine, the driver was said to have panicked. “I knew Cas had used me to collect drugs by sending me to London,” he told the court.

Fearing what might happen to his three children if he were to call the police, de Resende carried on to Swindon.

But rather than go to a home in Penhill – where Mulholland was said to be spending time with friends – as directed by Mawire, de Resende headed to his client’s Hunters Grove home.

It was there he was stopped by uniformed officers driving an unmarked car. In the taxi they found the block of cocaine and around £290 in cash.