A gang responsible for smuggling up to £40m of cocaine into the UK has been jailed for a total of 43 years.

Ringleaders Keith Blenkinsop and Lindsay Harkins were importing the Class-A drug into the country from Spain between 2007 and 2009, before distributing it around Glasgow and Dumfries.

The pair, along with couriers Andrew Burns, Robert Dalrymple and James Elvin, were all jailed at the High Court in Edinburgh on Tuesday after being convicted of their parts in a multi-million pound international drug trafficking operation.

Blenkinsop, 43, and Harkins, 44, sewed the cocaine into suitcases in Barcelona and used couriers to bring it into Glasgow, Prestwick and Newcastle airports.

Over a two-year period the gang flew out to Spain with suitcases full of Euros and came back with two kilos of cocaine hidden in the luggage.

One of the gang's couriers, David Harbinson, was then caught with some counterfeit £20 notes in a Marks and Spencer's bureau de change shop in Carlisle. He later admitted details of the drugs operation to police officers who were questioning him.

Blenkinsop, from Annan, who was also convicted of being involved in the supply of cannabis and amphetamines, received 12 years in jail.

He was described by High Court judge Lord Doherty as "one of the principals in a major cocaine distribution operation".

Harkins, from Helensburgh, was also found guilty of supplying amphetamines at the end of a five-week trial and received ten years in jail.

Couriers Andrew Burns, 56, from Helensburgh, Robert Dalrymple, 43, from Gretna, and James Elvin, 35, from Clydebank received eight, seven and six years respectively.

The court heard that despite the size of their operation, the gang managed to remain completely under the radar of the UK's drug enforcement agencies.

Harbinson, a father-of-two, gave evidence in court which put his former associates behind bars. He has now been placed on a witness protection programme.

He told the court that the gang had a direct connection to Columbian drug barons. Harbinson said that Blenkinsop and Harkins were the brains behind the operation and the other accused were merely couriers paid to take Euros to Spain and bring back drugs.

Harbinson even told police that Harkins had an X-ray machine at the Barcelona house - like those used at airports - to make sure that the drugs would not be spotted. However, he never said this in the witness box.

Police found a 50 tonne hydraulic press in Harkins' former Helensburgh home, along with traces of cocaine and cutting agents for the drug.

When Blenkinsop's house in Annan was searched, 12 kilos of cannabis resin were found in a holdall in the attic. He was caught off the Spanish coast in a yacht containing four tonnes of cannabis resin worth £12m.

The cocaine which was brought in by the gang was in the main destined for the Glasgow area, although some of it was sold in the Dumfries.