Two Brit drug dealers were caught trying to sneak across a river by armed Ukranian border officials.
Lance Kennedy and Robert Stewart were on the run over a multi-million pound plot to import cocaine into the UK using helicopters.
They were jailed today after being extradited from Moldova following their capture earlier this year, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Kennedy, a top-tier international drug trafficker, organised helicopter drug runs from Belgium to southern England.
The 32-year-old was jailed for 18 years and four months after being linked to six flights that dropped a combined total of just under 500kgs of cocaine into the country.
His associates would book rural holiday homes on the flight paths, unload the drugs then distribute them to gangs across England and Scotland.
Stewart was among that crew until he fled the UK while on bail over a different cocaine plot.
He was later jailed in his absence for three years for that scheme.
By that time the 38-year-old had travelled to the other side of the world to meet up with Kennedy in Thailand.
Little is known about what they did next until they emerged in eastern Europe in February.
The pair paid a Moldovan man to help them cross the Dnister River into Ukraine but were halted by border officials armed with guns.
Dramatic footage obtained showed them being marched at gunpoint after their capture by a team from the Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky border unit.
The Ukrainian authorities also released pictures showing the pair being detained by gun-wielding troops in a field and sat handcuffed against a wall lined with rugs.
Stewart is pictured being held against a wall as he is searched, the operation revealing a Three Lions England tattoo on his right calf.
Kennedy and Stewart - whose nickname is Ferry - were caught near the Ukrainian village of Yas'ky, not far from the the Black Sea port of Odesa.
From there they were extradited to the UK and jailed at Liverpool Crown Court today after admitting conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
Kennedy and Stewart, both of no fixed abode but formerly of Birkenhead, were jailed for 18 years and four months and 13 years and eight months respectively.
Cleveland Police’s Detective Sergeant John Fitzpatrick, who lead on Operation Spoonbill, said: “This was a complex enquiry and the sentences reflect the scale of the conspiracy which was uncovered by our Organised Crime Unit.
These individuals took lengthy and complex steps to mask their criminality, which was controlled from abroad.
“The volume of Class A drugs attributable to this group within the conspiracy period is huge and the damage caused locally and nationally by this evil trade is unquantifiable.
“We will now focus our attentions on these individuals to recoup their ill-gotten gains and continue to target their customer-base who peddle in miserery."
