Cocaine Courier In Court

And at Croydon Crown Court last week Makriel, 19, of East Preston, was sent to detention for 11 years for drugs smuggling and a string of burglaries.

He was appearing before the court for sentence, after a jury rejected his claim that he had been threatened by bully boys who warned they would burn down his family's Roundstone Crescent home and torture his relatives.

At his trial in June, customs officer Tracey Simmons said she stopped Makriel in the "nothing to declare" green channel when he landed at Gatwick Airport on a flight from Venezuela on October 26.

A search of his large suitcase revealed the drug.

Makriel, then aged 18, spoke of meeting a man in London, who offered him 2,000 to bring cocaine into the country.

He refused, but a few weeks later he happened to meet the same man at a pub in Bognor Regis.

"He told me to bring drugs in or he would torture my family and burn their house down. I thought he might kidnap them and tie them up. I was shocked.

"He had a gun in the glove compartment of his car. He showed it to me and said he would shoot me in the legs."

Makriel said he agreed to be a drugs courier because he was in fear for his life and his family's.

At last week's sentencing hearing, Jennie Goldring, prosecuting, said Makriel had been on bail for smuggling cannabis into Dover when he was arrested at Gatwick. He also admitted 22 burglaries, mostly in Sussex.

Selwyn Shapiro, defending, said Makriel had had an unhappy family background. He left home at 14 and soon afterwards turned to alcohol and drugs.

His role in the drug smuggling enterprise had been no more than that of a courier, and he was never well up in the organisation.

Judge Cedric Joseph told Makriel: "There must be a substantial deterrent sentence to prevent others from doing what you did.

"I have no doubt you did it in order to get money. An aggravating feature is that you were on bail when you did this."

Of the burglaries, the judge said: "These must have caused a great upset to the householders concerned."